Are File Sharing Services Like Dropbox Putting Your Company at Risk?

Use iSync.io File Sharing and File Sync Service to Protect your Business

Standardizing on common business tools you and your team uses can ensure that things run smoothly. File syncing and file sharing is no exception. While some people use free file sync and file sharing tools for work and personal files, there are some potential problems with this as well as risk to your business. Consumer file syncing and file sharing tools aren’t designed for businesses. If you allow your files get sync’d and shared this way, you run the risk of a variety of problems, such as:

• Data theft
• Lack of data integrity
• Unreliability
• Risk of legal ramifications

Theft of Company Data

How do you prevent theft of company data when you don’t know what sorts of tools your team is using or when you, yourself, choose a free or consumer-based file syncing tool. When your employees use file sync and file sharing tools that you haven’t had vetted, you don’t know how secure the data is. While your employee may be sync’ing and sharing files between work, home and their mobile devices, the risk of others accessing that information could be there.

Lack of Data Integrity

If you don’t research and vet a file syncing and file sharing solution, you can’t be sure about data integrity. Corrupted files and overwritten documents could easily happen and have ramifications that could be counterproductive and costly.

Lack of Reliability

Lost data snafus can happen when tools aren’t researched. An employee could have faith in a tool and without the knowledge that the tool is 100% reliable, data, opportunities, time, and money could be lost. Employees using free subscriptions and free trials for file syncing and sharing could also suffer data loss because you don’t have administrative rights over those files.

Legal Risk

Software use could put you at risk for legal risk. If your industry is heavily scrutinized for privacy, the way you store confidential information, and / or you have private information that’s part of file sharing that could happen outside of your company’s walls, you need a business class file sharing solution that can help you ensure you stay compliant, avoid lawsuits, and prevent reputation damages.

Problems When an Employee Leaves

If you let your team use their own file syncing tools for company information, that information could be out there, unsecured, on their personal devices long after they’ve left your company.

Standardization Has a Variety of Benefits

Standardization with a business class file sync and file sharing ensures the right access, the right archiving, and data integrity is in place. It also ensures that you can assess the history associated with every single file so that there’s accountability, a complete paper trail, and easy and seamless access for those who are meant to have it.

By implementing a standard business class file syncing and file sharing solution like iSync.io and ensuring your team are aware of the required protocol for sharing and syncing you’ll benefit from a standardized tool with a plethora of benefits, such as:

• Military-grade encryption and other security features
• Real-time back-up
• Detailed logs
• Remote wipe of devices, including desktops, tablets, mobile phones
• Policy-based rules
• Intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard
• Deleted file recovery
• And more…

iSync.io is affordable, scalable, and built for businesses.

Learn more: http://www.isync.io

Sync before you act - the future of the cloud

About two years ago, my trusty MacBook Air decided - from one day to another - never to start again. My Mac doctor sadly affirmed its death the next day. Warranty on the device had just run out, and I was understandably less than happy to find that the only life-saving operation - replacing the mainboard - would cost me as much as a brand new device. More importantly, it dawned on me that my entire data would be lost until I found a specialist to help me recover my files from the SSD which (you guessed) was mounted on the main board. Until I realised, that is, that all my important files were in my dropbox folder. This did not just save me the specialist, it led to an epiphany: Without knowing it, I had pretty much transitioned my entire workflow into the cloud.


Same story for my iPhone, email and music - instead of browsing my thousands of MP3's, I moved to almost exclusively streaming the tunes I listened to daily. Also, all my notes lived in Evernote. Whenever I was looking to transfer large files to people, I'd send them a link to my cloud storage. Any occasion a file went missing or corrupted, I'd turn to the cloud for an intact previous version. While traditional file backups are tedious as you know, the cloud offers a much more elegant and seamless recovery option. If you were to ask me, the best new technologies are those which work their magic in the background, without you even noticing. That's precisely how I feel about cloud applications, and this is what I love about great technology - it makes life easier, simpler and a little more beautiful.


My daily app usage gave away what I had only just realised: How reliant I had become on cloud applications in my life. And, that whilst this came with plenty of benefits, heavy daily usage also had quite a number of drawbacks. The most painful of which, no question, was always the syncing process. Due to the inherent complexity of multiple end notes accessing files and the greatly varying speeds of data connections (especially on mobile), synchronising across devices is an incredibly demanding task. That's exactly why it fails so frequently: I see myself clearing out conflicting notes in Evernote almost on a daily basis, and somehow nobody on our office cloud drive ever has had access to exactly the same amount and version of files. This leads to a great deal of confusion, re-work and file recovery. But at the same time, going back to a work environment without cloud is almost unthinkable to me.


The utility of cloud applications is undeniably high despite its very evident flaws, yet it could be so much higher still if the main bottleneck and pain point of syncing were resolved with a more suitable approach. We’ve cracked this on the front of individual documents, but not on a system level. Tools like Google docs and Office online have shown that principles of live interaction, just like in web based multiplayer games, can work magnificently in a virtual team collaboration context. Visual cloud whiteboards like spacedeck exemplify the possibilities of taking effective offline teamwork methodologies into a digital environment. On another end of the spectrum apps like trello, basecamp and slack are all great integrators that bring together several cloud applications and create a team workflow. This means it’s technically possible to work purely in the cloud.
Yet, despite all this progress on the UX front, the core problem of cloud applications - those aforementioned clumsy sync processes - are still around and haven’t been solved.

How come we have yet to address this most fundamental of issues? A hypothesis is that we are caught in a system of desktop thinking: We're still storing and categorising dynamic, interactive content in static lists, i.e. file and folder structures. A good example of this are file systems in cloud drives. There’s no reason why these need to be static, as computing and file reading and writing power of modern computers and broadband internet connections is easily capable of a folder structure that is constantly changing. Which makes me ask, why can't each user of a shared cloud storage solution organise all the files in the shared cloud drive in his/her own folder structure? In the same way that we all have our own playlists in spotify, yet the music obviously links to the same files on the spotify servers. It’s less a problem of technical realisation than of longstanding habit - much like the inefficient but ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard we are stuck with on most devices today. By mimicking local storing of files, most cloud applications resemble work environments we were used to before cloud computing. This is where a shift needs to occur, and I’m glad to see solutions are moving into a new direction. Take this kickstarter campaign, for example.

Rather than sync all files by default and allowing users to opt out, it’s more likely that we will only store file links locally in the future. All software we use daily will have to be web-based and ready for simultaneous collaboration: Browsers will become our new desktops (sure you’ve heard that one before!)
Moreover, with all the rave about AI, I’m extremely surprised we have yet to apply this technology to cloud collaboration. A simple example. When I use dropbox for iOS, I always look for the same files. What I'd like to see when I open the app is only these files, with the option to search my entire drive as necessary. I envision the same for my desktop cloud storage - a list of links to the files I frequently use, and an intelligent contextual search engine for everything else. So, if you’ve heard that mobile and desktop, web browsing and desktop work will increasingly converge, a shift to cloud in everything we do is a main driving force behind this.

It’s crucial that we graduate from antiquated ways of organising files as we make this shift. Sync processes in the future shouldn’t just ensure that every device has the latest copy of all shared files and folders, but learn our usage patterns and help us find the stuff we actually need at the given moment. Tell me big data analytics can't do that already - if you've ever wondered how Google finds exactly what you're looking for, it's not like they're guessing... but back to the cloud, and its future in our work and private lives.

Rather than manually syncing our applications just to be safe, or wasting time clearing out file duplicates, the cloud should enable us to replace the traditional sequence of creating locally and then sharing or editing online with a completely web-based workflow. At the same time, the possibilities that come with it should drive us to rethink the static ways in which we have always structured and displayed files to resemble a more dynamic and personalised approach that learns our individual preferences. Imagine a world without local hard drives, and ask yourself why that might feel so foreign to you. It’s a natural next step - and perhaps one to come with the positive side effect that in future, going offline will really mean taking a break from all the digital content in our lives.

How Can I Deal With Oversized OST File?

Summary: The article provides an overview to deal with corrupted OST files and various methods to safeguard data from damaged Outlook data files as well as suggests an alternate solution for quick OST recovery(http://www.ostpst.convertostpst.com/oversized-ost-recovery.html).

While working in offline Exchange mode (Cached Exchange Mode), if the OST file becomes inaccessible, it implies that the file has become corrupted and is denying access. The major reason behind the cause is the oversized volume of Offline Storage Tables and sometimes synchronization error. Though, data can be recovered through inbuilt ‘OST Integrity Check Tool’ but it does not help to deal with oversized OST file recovery where the OST file exceeds the stipulated 2GB limitations.

Outlook Versions with Oversized OST Issue

This problem of oversized OST volume exists in the following versions of the Outlook application:

• MS Outlook 2003 (Standard Edition)
  
• MS Outlook 2000 (Standard Edition)
• MS Outlook 98 (Standard Edition)
• MS Outlook 97 (Standard Edition)

As all the above stated release of MS Outlook application creates ANSI type OST files; the storage capacity for these files is limited to 2GB. Therefore, the oversized OST recovery is required to gain access to the lost data if the file is not synchronized with Exchange account. However, if the OST is synched with the Exchange account, it can be recreated by downloading the data from EDB mailbox.

Methods to Deal with ANSI OST Corruption

In the previous versions of the application, where it supports non-Unicode format, users normally use SCANOST.exe to deal with the corrupted OST files. As the respective utility does not help dealing with the existing problem, Microsoft has introduced ‘OST Crop Tool’ to handle the issue.

OST Crop Tool: When oversized OST files are recovered using this tool; it works towards truncating the overall file volume to fit within the limited storage capacity. This indicates that during the process, some of the data gets missing from the resultant files. Therefore, the integrity as well as the security of data is not ensured as it involves the possibilities of data loss.

Recover Data & Split Oversized OST File

If the OST file have become corrupted or inaccessible, recreating or rebuilding would not help as the data has already erased from the file. The deleted data can be restored back to the file with the help of OST Recovery tool. The software helps extracting data from the corrupted files through implementing advance scan algorithm. It also enables to store the recovered data to PST, EML and PST file formats and while saving to PST, the tool offers to split heavy OST file into smaller proportions. Moreover, while restoring data to EML or MSG; the oversized volume OST corruption issue eradicates as these file formats save single email message per file. Therefore, the tool is an absolute solution for dealing with the outsized OST files.

Source: http://www.ostpst.convertostpst.com/oversized-ost-recovery.html

Resolve Error & Change OST to PST With Entire Email Data

OST files have been offering convenience of working offline to users. The functioning of these offline data files comes handy when the user is not connected to the server and still needs to use their mailbox mounted on it. Thus, the offline (replica) file is used for the exchange of emails, which is later synchronized (automatically) with the respective mailbox on server, as soon as the connection is reestablished.

However, above all - the file is still vulnerable. Vulnerability of the data file to minor to major causes of corruption or internal damage, make OST file recovery, the most sought after solutions. There are plenty of possibilities provided by Microsoft itself for the recovery of lost data from OST files. Nevertheless, not all work every time thus, making it necessary for users to go for third party solutions as an alternative. The following blog will help understand conditions that drive users to resolve error and change OST to PSTwith entire email data.

Resolving OST File Error

The condition is majorly complicated by damage caused to an OST file. Conversion of OST file is comparatively easier as long as the data file is in a stable form. However, data corruption leads to all kinds of complication and here are some of the conditions that end up corrupting the OST.

1. Inappropriately synchronizing the offline storage with its respective mailbox on Exchange Server.
2. Microsoft Outlook having software conflicts with other applications on the OST configured machine.
3. Whenever multiple users are trying to access one OST, there is a strong chance that inconsistencies may occur.
4. Unauthorized access being made to the offline storage also leads to corruption of the data file in many cases.

Simplest procedure of resolving OST file error is by using Microsoft featured OST repair tool. The utility is provided with Outlook to resolve minor level of damage detected in the mailbox replica. However, 2010 and later versions of the client are no longer accompanied by the utility. Moreover, the conversion methods involve:

1. Transfer of emails from OST to newly created Outlook Data file.
2. Importing / exporting emails from the Offline storage to Personal Storage.

Therefore, deploying a third party application is the only feasible option that remains to resolve error & change OST to PST with entire email data. OST Recovery is amongst such tools that can be put to use for acquiring guaranteed successful results. The tool features both recovery and conversion of offline data file, involving least end user input.

Source: http://www.ostemailrecovery.com/

The Eight Most Evil HR Policies

We are getting smarter in the business world all the time. Our trusty senses know what works and what doesn't, and by now we know that it doesn't work to treat employees like children or ask them to abide by elementary-school rules.

All we can do with insulting rules and policies is to crush our team members' spirits and keep them from being themselves at work. We need their hearts! We need their brains.

Why would we turn cut off the principal power source for innovation, customer care and everything else we care about by managing to the very bottom of the pack?

Instead of writing rules to ensure that somebody doesn't get away with some little infraction, we can systematically remove the bureaucratic roadblocks that keep our brilliant co-workers from doing their jobs. That is the intelligent way to lead, and the human way.

If you want to build your own Human Workplace, you'll start by removing man-made blockages to creativity and brilliance. The dams in the river are of our own making. We've been busy beavers!

In some organizations the management team has never seen an HR policy they didn't like. Their employee handbooks are 150 pages long. You can start building your own Human Workplace by getting rid of these eight obnoxious and outdated HR policies first. They are unworthy of you and the incredible people on your teams.

Employees Working Sick

You'd think we would know by now that when people come to work sick, other employees get sick. That's how sickness works. I won't be surprised to see companies held liable for making people ill through their Neanderthal sick-time policies.

When someone is sick, he or she can work from home and if that isn't feasible, s/he must be allowed to use paid time off. If your attendance policy considers too many sick days 'unexcused absences,' you are living in the leadership Dark Ages.

Stitch-Level Dress Code Policy

We hire adults, and they know how to get dressed. If you have an issue with someone showing up to work looking too club-ready or too beach-y, talk to that person in private.

Be honest and compassionate, and say "I'm not sure this is the perfect outfit for work. Can I give you a company tee-shirt to wear instead?"

Management is all about judgment. Find your voice and have a conversation. Get rid of the detailed and insulting dress code policy that lists every acceptable and unacceptable item of clothing. You'll never keep up with changing fashions, and your employees won't read the policy anyway.

Stack Ranking

Forced ranking systems compel managers rank their employees from Best to Worst. When there's a downturn (or even if there isn't) it will be easy to whack the bottom ten percent of the names on the list.

This is the barbaric management practice popularized by Jack Welch twenty years ago. It doesn't work. It only gets people focused on stepping over one another instead of pulling together. That would be obvious to anyone who gave it a moment's thought, even twenty years ago.

If you have a performance review system that only lets managers give so many people an "A" grade and so many others a "B," you're making the same mistake. Hire great people and then reward them for being great. Don't force managers to hire and keep lousy employees just to suit the review process!

No Personal Calls or Email at Work

It is 2015, and the hard lines between work and home have blurred. Your employees lay in bed at night thinking about the work on their desks and planning for the next day. There are personal calls and email messages they have to attend to during business hours. I have always told my co-workers to take care of their personal stuff first thing in the morning, so it's off their minds instead of being a distraction all day. You can do the same thing!

No Decorations in Your Workstation

Employees who sit in cubes have to be allowed some freedom to post personal photos and images if they want to.

Otherwise, your workplace becomes a prison - grey and anonymous and institutional. Are you going to produce great things in that environment? Not likely!

Managers are afraid to let people show their individual tastes in workstation decoration because they don't know how to say "I'm not sure that's appropriate workstation decoration," but they are missing the point. More conversation about sticky topics is only good for the team, and for a manager's development. More conversation is never a bad thing.

We write policies so that we can avoid sticky conversation, but it never works. We end up with more tedious and expensive policies to administer, and conversations that should be happening but aren't

We'd all benefit from more conversation and fewer policies!

Inhuman Bereavement Leave Policies

Bereavement leave is a short period of paid time off when an employee's family dies. It is a personal event, not a bureaucratic procedure.

It is vile and unethical to require an employee to bring in a funeral notice to prove that someone in his or her family died, just in order to get some time off.

It is equally inappropriate to list the family relationships that qualify for bereavement leave and the ones that don't. All families are different. I might be closer to my step-grandmother than to someone nearer to me on the family tree. Those distinctions are not my employer's concern.

If you don't trust your employees to use bereavement leave appropriately, why do they work for you? Your employees' workmates may have been supporting and consoling your employee for months during his or her family members' decline.

Now that the worst has happened, you're going to demand to see paperwork?

Maybe in the past someone ripped off your company with a fake death in the family. What a loss! - two or three days of time. That is not a reason to subject your entire team to an offensive and draconian bereavement policy.

You can't write your policies directed toward people you wish you hadn't hired. Humanize your bereavement leave policy immediately or give up any claims that your organization values people.

Attendance Policies For Salaried Employees

You have to keep track of when your hourly and non-exempt salaried folks come and go, because you have to pay them overtime after they work a full-time day or week.

You don't have to track the movements of your salaried people except to log their earned and used vacation time, because you owe them that if they leave the company.

Why track your salaried employees' time otherwise? Unless you are working on a client project that bills by the hour, there is no good reason to make salaried people clock in and out for lunch or an hour here or there at the dentist. There is no reason to count their personal days.

At U.S. Robotics we had close to ten thousand employees and we didn't count personal days. We said "Take the days you need." There was a high level of trust. Here's how many employees misused their paid time off: zero. They didn't do it, because they were treated like adults.

It is absurd to ding or discipline salaried employees when they come in late or leave early for a good reason. They are human beings, not machine parts.

If your company can't handle a person walking in ten minutes late now and then, you have a control problem. You don't deserve the mental and emotional energy your employees have to give you!

No Reference Policies

Some years ago many organizations got into the habit of prohibiting their managers from giving job references for past employees. That's about as weaselly as a policy can get. You could work for the company for years, but when the time comes to help you get a new job, the company says "Jack? Never heard of him!"

They verify your dates of employment and titles - that's all. Wimpy CEOs and HR Directors listened to their employment attorneys when they should have listened to their own beating hearts.

How can you accept a person's hard work and great ideas and then refuse to give him or her a good reference when it could make a difference?

If you don't trust your managers not to slime people and bring on a defamation suit, don't let them manage. Step out of the darkness into the light and tell your managers "Go ahead and give references!"

It is easy to train managers how to say nice and/or neutral things and not to say negative ones. I know, because I have done it and taught many other people to do it, too.

It is a new day. The Human Workplace is already here, and more eyes-open CEOs and their teams are seeing the connection between passion and performance every day. Your firm can join them. Take the first step and ditch these antiquated policies now!