All the critical data in your organization is probably stored in different PDF documents, including employee contracts, client proposals or contracts, partnership agreements, and project specifications. And, with the advancements in the digital world, you can now store large volumes of this data online as well. But, this has significantly increased the need to have better control over your information as digital access increases the threat of your data getting copied or leaked.
You do not want to be in a situation where your documents can be easily copied, which would imply that you are unable to exercise appropriate document control and document management. The ability to copy-protect your documents is an integral part of document security, which forms the basis of all document management systems.
However, document security has to be flexible. You cannot give all your document users the same set of access capabilities. Some users would require more rights than others, so that they can perform more actions on the confidential data which they access. This kind of alignment of data access and usage rights for your users boils down to the Digital Rights Management (DRM) controls that you can exercise.
All in all, the main objective of your document security software, empowered with DRM controls, is to avoid unauthorized usage or misuse of your confidential data. This is achieved by controlling who accesses and views your documents, for how long they can view it (via an expiry date), and what the authorized users may do with the data in the files (for example, copy, print, and share).
It does not completely prevent copying, but restricts it to a large extent. For example, you can prevent screen grabbing and totally block some of your users from printing the documents or perhaps limit the number of copies each authorized user can print.
When your documents are viewed or printed, the DRM-enabled security solution also enables you to apply dynamic watermarks with the username, company info, date or time stamp, and so on to ensure no one can take screenshots or printouts and then promote or sell your content as their own.
Also, you should realize that it is really difficult to protect your documents from all kinds of copying, especially since the digital world has been made to make copying and sharing information extremely easy. But, a DRM tool can help you achieve copy protection by ensuring that, even if your data falls in the hands of an unauthorized user, it would remain inaccessible to him or her. This is done by encrypting the information in your files; so, there is no possibility of your data being used in an unauthorized manner, regardless of whether your document is shared or copied.
Finally, as part of a DRM-enabled document management system, you (the document owner) should be able to determine which controls need to be implemented to align with your document management objectives. The DRM solution will help your business identify whether the document security system is working by recording instances of document control being used, even when an unauthorized person tries to breach your document security system by trying to gain access to your confidential information.
Clearly, DRM controls enable you to protect your documents from unauthorized access by exhibiting the right document controls.
We hope that the above information about the ways to use DRM controls for ultimate document security proves valuable for your business. Feel free to share your experience or queries (if any) in the comments section below.
Author Bio:
Karishma is a professional blogger. From many years, she has been writing for various technology websites. Her recent writing was on Locklizard website, which provides document and content encryption products.
