Do you possess documents you need to share but at the same time do not want to give anyone permanent access? For instance, in an M&A transaction, there are specific documents that involved parties must gain access to. At the same time, once they have read and approved the data in the files, it may not be necessary to hold onto them permanently.
Similarly, such documents are commonly seen in businesses where classified data needs to be shared for a limited period of time. Thanks to PDF DRM, it is now possible to provide only temporary access to specific documents. That means your authorized users or recipients only have a brief period of time to access them. Setting expiry can make your documents secure and prevent misuse or theft. Pdf merge is the best option, if you have multiple pdf files. For instance, you may want to restrict or expire documents in areas where you need to:
- Limit access for the duration of an assignment or a specific license.
- Restrict exposure to credentials such as financial information or login data.
- Comply with regulatory compliance or other such policies.
- Revoke access to data after an employee has left the organization.
In the absence of expiry restrictions or access restraints, documents such as PDF files can be viewed indefinitely. So, no matter how well you have secured the document before sending or while in transit, the moment your recipient receives the file, they can do what they want with it and it could be anyone’s guess what could occur to the document contents. For instance, the information could unintentionally end up in the wrong hands and become a security risk.
Setting expiry to secure your documents
Expiry is the ability to allow access until a specified date or time is reached. For example, setting an expiry on PDF files can be useful within M&A transactions or when dealing with sensitive classified data that needs to be evaluated in a proposal or tender.
Placing deadlines and expiry controls can be beneficial in documents concerning negotiations as it can impart an urgency and sense of duty. However, for the expiry to be practical, you need to set the date and time in advance, particularly by a few weeks, days or months. This is because you are proactively ensuring that you do not have to manually revoke access.
In many organizations, deleting old yet sensitive data is the core principle of a good company policy. Shredding and getting rid of important information is one of the basics of excellent security hygiene. However, discarding documents can sometimes be hazardous, as threat agents could re-piece together physical copies or dig out soft copies or PDF files from the recycle bin long after they have been deleted.
Hence, the best way to get rid of documents that need to be deleted is through setting document expiry policies – once the document has expired it can no longer be accessed. This can ensure that the data within and outside the organization does not persist for longer than it needs to.
Why you need to set expiry policies for your data
Several organizations need to share classified data on an ongoing basis. In this regard, document expiry allows individuals to access what they need without ensuring that their assets are permanently available. A unique advantage of the using document expiry in a digital rights management solution is that it can be set to automatically prevent access without the need for manual intervention.
Expiry policies can be particularly useful when employees exit the company or partnerships between clients and vendors change. Some applications say they allow you to self-destruct the PDF file but secure deletion is not the same as expiry even though they effectively provide the same result – preventing access to content. However, with expiry you can be assured that all copies of a document cannot be accessed even if backup copies have been made in offline storage.
What happens if you do not set expiry policies on your documents
Several things may occur if your PDF documents are lost or intentionally/unintentionally exposed. For instance:
- Your competitors can obtain classified information such as client information or sales strategies.
- Employees could view specific information that they are not allowed to see, such as salaries and performance reports of others.
- Classified data can fall into the hands of threat agents and actors.
- Organizations could face legal notices for failing to comply with regulatory requirements for document security.
- Teams could lose productivity if they cannot find a specific file or the updated/appropriate version.
- Stakeholders could lose faith in the organization because they cannot view critical data.
- Data security breaches could be on the rise because cybercriminals are hackers get to leverage stolen data.
Conclusion
Each year, failures in document security and mislaid files result in millions of dollars of losses for organizations and industries. To avoid such disastrous scenarios, you may want to employ digital rights management to set expiry policies on PDF files to prevent access after a certain time period. Using expiry can give you complete control over revoking documents even after they have been distributed and viewed.
