The Virtual Data Room is a service that offers startups various convenient tools for organizing hybrid or remote work. The main advantage of VDR technology is maximum file protection. They are protected from both internal and external threats.
How can data theft occur (and what does VDR have to do with it)?
There are several ways in which classified information can get out of the company.
Insider access and redundant rights
Approximately 70% of information theft cases are accounted for by insider access. What does this mean? It implies the theft of data by the employees of the company. Insufficient attention to company files leads to the fact that access to data is received by employees who should not have it. For example, when data from one department may be available to another department. Or secret documents are visible to newly hired employees. This is how records are stolen.
The virtual data room allows the administrator to flexibly configure the access rights of each user to certain documents. Each employee can see only the data that he needs to work on. You can configure access to files for reading, editing, and printing. All files are watermarked.
Theft from outside
Theft of information from the outside occurs less often – this is a technically more complex way of stealing data. This method accounts for approximately 15% of all information leaks. Malware or direct hacker attacks can cause a leak.
Virtual data rooms have servers in different parts of the world, so it is challenging to hack a specific company’s space.
Company software hack
If your company uses special software to store files and documents, it can be hacked to steal data. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen sometimes.
A virtual data room is a cloud technology that is often not installed as a stationary program on a computer. Therefore, hacking the cloud is technically quite difficult.
Media theft
A very crude way, but sometimes it is put into action. This is possible if your servers are available to a wide range of people (physically).
The virtual data room is not a physical medium. Instead, all information is stored on the servers of the service provider, and it is impossible to steal it.
Several VDRs for startups
Depending on the size of your startup, different services may suit you. For example, there are more budget-friendly (with sufficiently developed functionality, but without the ability to get additional options) and expensive VDRs, where you can order functionality in whole blocks.
For a small startup, the following virtual data rooms may be suitable: FirmRoom, Fordata, SecureDocs, Sharefile, Caplinked. These services are ideal for small and medium-sized companies and boast rich functionality, significant data protection, and low cost. On average, the price of such a virtual data room will be from 20-50 to 400-500 dollars per month.
For large companies that are engaged in many startups at the same time, Intralinks, Merrill, iDeals programs may be of interest. These providers offer more expensive services – a data room can cost as little as several thousand dollars a month. In addition, they provide buyers to choose the blocks of functions that are most interesting for the projects they produce.