How Can I Share Files With Clients and Co-Workers?

Sharing files in an office environment is often easy. There’s often different email rules set up for internal sharing, an easy to use shared server environment, and company-provided usb thumbdrives.

But what if you need to share files with a customer, or now that you’re working from home and not inside that hardened corporate firewall? We’re talking today about some of the things you can use to share files without being on that safe company system (including VPN’s into the system)

Ways to Share Files

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of ways to share files with co-workers and clients. Remember that you still have to get passwords to the end user, so sending that in the same email could be a security issue. Here’s just a few ways to share files:

• Thumbdrives – Keep in mind there are some issues regarding thumbdrive safety so make sure the drive is yours and you have formatted it prior to transferring files. Also, some computers are locked down to getting files from thumbdrives.
• Password Protecting – Microsoft Office and other files allow you to password protect the files prior to saving or sending. In Office click on File – Info – Protect Document –  Encrypt with Password
• Zip & Protect – Similar to password protecting. Just add to a compression folder and add a password.
• Google Drive – Save files to your Google Drive, and from there you can share the folder out via email or a shared link.
• SendSafely – Two-factor authentication, expiration controls, even an Outlook plugin with “dropzones” for teams. Free and various levels of subscriptions.
• DropBox or Sync -File sharing sending links or allowing a login. I use Sync which allows you to see when the file is downloaded and also to encrypt and password protect them better than Dropbox.

These have different levels of cost and security, but all will work. Some require direct access like a thumbdrive, and some are easier to hack than others. Some are easy to set up, and some might require some working with clients and co-workers setting up and sharing.

The important thing to remember is if you really need something to be secure, make sure you can control the source, encrypt end-to-end, and see who views/edits the file. Budgets, financial data, secure company data and items like that need more security than an birthday announcement. Think in advance and be safe!

What are your favorite ways to share files? Send them to me @BeBizzy on Twitter!