The legal world has its very own peculiarities and limitations when it comes to secure file sharing. Take for instance the parole hearing for a prisoner. Lawyers or those who are defending the prisoner should have access to the case file. The case file can contain as few as a couple of sheets or can be voluminous with thousands of pages of documents. Photocopying or printing these documents and then dispatching them through courier or getting them collected by a paralegal at a secure location has remained a standard practice for most prison systems.
Problems with present secure file sharing system
The problem with the existing system is the eternal conflict between convenience and security. An average employee cannot be expected to care much about security. When a solution forces change in workflow, in a manner that is not agreeable to them, they will simply not use the solution and lawyers, in particular, are notorious for this. Nevertheless, legal organizations are tasked with handling privileged information across criminal data and corporate secrets.
While the security game needs to be beefed up, doing it effectively is fraught with strong resistance from top employees and therefore we continue to see firms settling for their old ways of doing things just because it is reckoned as more secure.
BlackBerrry WatchDox Software shows the way to secure file sharing
It is in this context that BlackBerry’s WatchDox software comes into focus. This software has already received many laurels and provides free access to the important files of your organization to those who need access to them without losing your control. In the case of a parole hearing, for instance, using WatchDox, all the legal files of the prisoner can be uplinked immediately to a designated secure workspace that can be remotely accessed by anyone involved and authorized in the particular parole process.
After the hearing is over, one can delete the workspace itself and access to files revoked with just a few clicks.
California Department of Corrections adopt WatchDox for secure file sharing
This is also precisely the way California Department of Corrections uses WatchDox. It provides them with a secure way of sharing their parole files short circuiting massive amount of paper and the services of couriers allowing them to save significant time across the parole process. Some of the major attributes that make WatchDox a perfect fit in this scenario include:-
File expiry – Access to workspace and files can be programmed to expire after the interval of a specified duration or revoked manually whenever desired.
File Tracking – To prevent misuse and enable logging person controlling the files within the workspace can see who has accessed the file how, when and where.
Granular file control – Organizations have full control over things users can do with files accessed by them from the workspace and can specify if the file can be printed, copied, edited, downloaded or can simply be viewed.
Customized watermarks – Details like username, email or IP address can be incorporated into each document.
BlackBerry WatchDox addresses perceived inconveniences of employees
Regulated industries suffer from an array of inefficiencies and legal services are no exception. The issue, however, is that most employees are resistant to perceived inconveniences on security and are therefore are happy to stick to methods that have seen little change in more than a decade. These perceived inconveniences are totally absent with WatchDox making it significantly more efficient and easier for legal services to share documents than any time in the past.