Industry Leaders Agree: The Risks of Using Free File-Sharing for Confidential Information

July 16, 2019 Herndon, Virginia. Hot on the heels of Privia’s latest APMP article, “Warning: Sharing May Not Be Caring,” the impact and potential danger of using free file-sharing tools on proposals, Microsoft leaked information on a few of its prohibited free apps. For example, the multinational technology giant has banned the free version of Slack and discouraged the use of Google Docs for its 100,000+ employees. They even now discourage the use of their own GitHub for highly confidential types of information.

If you’re thinking this is just another competitive maneuver by the world’s largest software maker, think again. While they have been competing pretty aggressively with Slack, Microsoft’s recent missive has a lot more to do with sensitive information and security. Microsoft itself has been subjected to some pretty damning reports on security regarding its collaborative software, as evidenced by this quote which appeared in a recent US Government acquisition document:

“Recent meetings with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have resulted in a departure from SharePoint technology as the result of extreme concern expressed by the OIG regarding the security of PII [Personally Identifiable Information] in the SharePoint environment.” - Federal Business Ops, October 24, 2018

Security rose as a top concern for proposal management professionals at this year’s annual APMP Bid and Proposal Conference. “Secure collaboration was on everyone’s mind,” reported Jay McConville, Privia President and CEO, “But when we asked session attendees if they were using free-ware to collaborate on proposals, 90% said no – which runs counter to a recent survey by AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management, which revealed that while 35% said they were not aware of such use, 65% said they were.”

What does this mean for proposal professionals who share and collaborate on highly sensitive documents every day, such as intellectual property, client information and competitive intelligence? What exactly is the risk of using free-ware to share and collaborate on proposals?

“Either you give your teams a secure way to share and collaborate on proposals,” continued Jay, “or they will find their own way with free file-sharing or insecure tools. And that puts you, your proposal, and your organization at risk.”

Learn how a few changes in how you secure, share and collaborate on proposals can help your organization avoid the risk – and better leverage valuable time and precious resources more wisely.

Read - Warning: Sharing May Not Be Caring

 

About Privia

Privia is the "Proposal Company" known by its 10,000+ users for providing the software and services needed by today's government contractor market to bid and win government contracts. Industry-leading organizations including IBM Watson, Huntington Ingalls Industries, CGI, Noridian Health, and Sotera Defense, use Privia to collaborate, manage and build winning proposals every day. Privia software streamlines their capture and proposal management process – from opportunity, workflow automation, and content reuse to real-time reviews, contract management and business intelligence – while expert services ensure teams are working as efficiently and effectively as possible throughout the process. At Privia, we are business developers and proposal managers, technologists and innovators. We want you to win. We're here to help you save time, reduce costs and increase proposal quality.

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