5 Things You Need to Know About the Security of Google Apps

Here are five tips to make sure that Google Docs and IT managers can coexist efficiently and safely. Even in companies that have disappeared from Google, IT administrators have more power than ever. At Google, users and their data are condensed into a single "virtual" local: a big change from distributed data, structured expansion through hundreds of network devices. In addition, this information is accessible through data access and management APIs. Companies with resources for development can write their own applications to integrate data stored in Google Docs with other processes and internal applications.

1. Sharing permissions are up to the user

Google Docs model delegates control and responsibility of the users. It all depends on end users, but rather that, in determining to whom the data is shared, so that information can potentially be made available to the wrong people or groups within a company, outsiders outside the domain, or the public Internet.

2. Location data

In Google Apps, information is created by users and is in their individual accounts (as opposed to a central location). Also, if you delete an account, so it is all data from that user. There is no concept of a shared central file server in charge of IT. Companies that use Google Docs need to understand what data users have and own before any deletion of accounts.

3. Access Privileges

Companies that use Google Docs need to identify and report on who has access to sensitive data. This is necessary not only to help secure the data in a collaborative environment, but to adhere to the audit and compliance. Keeping track of who is accessing and using information with an audit trail becomes a critical component in the protection of data against misuse of end users and administrators.

4. Data leakage

Companies using Google Docs should be able to inspect their data and receive alerts when action is required. For example, suppose a company has a top-secret project called "Project Monkeyfeet" that only authorized personnel want to know. Be alert every time you use the term in a Google document and change access permissions as needed. This helps protect data from internal and external threats.

Google Apps does not currently have this functionality baked in.

5. Data Loss

In addition to protecting their data, companies must be able to retain the records, data migration and backup without losing anything. Since the control is in the hands of users, enterprises need to protect themselves and deleted users and malicious wrong caused by human error. There is a much higher risk that an employee unknowingly delete a document or an administrator deletes a user - along with all the details of your property - that a system outage of Google Docs or failure.