Truly secure services, including File Cloud, use encryption protocols for sharing and storing files on secure data centers, or the cloud. A good secure file transfer software will have plenty of customization features to allow you to add as much protection to your data as you need without making the way you work any more difficult.

A lot of industries, such as Healthcare, Insurance, Legal, Financial, Accounting and others, are regulated at a Federal, State or industry level by institutions and laws, including HIPPA, HITECH, FINRA, CFBP, state bar association ethics guidelines and more. But legal requirements aren’t the only reason a business should consider using a service like File Cloud. Businesses that handle customer or client data should consider their reputation and the damage that could happen as the result of a data breach if they aren’t using a secure solution to protect files where they’re stored and when they’re shared.

You can trust online file sharing services that utilize advanced encryption methods to store and send your files. To select a safe online file sharing site, look for one that protects documents with SSL/TLS encryption protocols and uses multi-factor authentication. If you need to share files and are in a regulated industry, choose a file sharing service that supports your particular compliance requirements, such as HIPAA or FINRA.

This one probably comes up the most often with new customers. We usually say to think about an employee user as an internal user or someone who works for your company. On the other hand, a client user is an external user or someone using your File Cloud account that doesn’t work for your company. For the most part, client and employee users will have a lot of the same functionality, but there’s a couple of differences. Mainly, client users can’t create root-level folders. But, you should keep in mind that they can still create sub-folders if they have upload permissions for the main folder. Additionally, only employee users can use the Send a File and Request a File features in File Cloud. All File Cloud accounts come with unlimited client users.

Any file type may be uploaded to XcellHost. Note: not all file types may be previewed.

The File Cloud system supports the upload and download of files up to 10GB or 100GB in size, depending on plan level. If your upload process cannot be completed within 18 hours, File Cloud recommends breaking your upload into smaller segments.

File Cloud Right Signature seamlessly integrates with File Cloud. You can send files stored in your File Cloud account to others for secure, legally binding electronic signature. With Right Signature, you pick where recipients need to sign or initial, and the simple, easy-to-use interface ensures that documents get every field filled completely. Once signed, documents are saved automatically back to File Cloud, so you never have to follow up with clients or chase down documents again.

The File Cloud Email Integrations allow you to insert links to files, upload and send new files, and request files directly from Microsoft Outlook or Gmail email messages. With File Cloud links you can avoid email bounce back or annoying file-size restrictions.

Our native application available for both Mac and Windows, File Cloud Sync automatically synchronizes a local folder on your computer with folders in your File Cloud account in real time. It’s the easiest way to keep files instantly up to date on all of your devices.

With File Cloud Mobile Apps — available for all iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry devices — you get seamless access to all the files, folders and features of your account on the go. Whether you need to browse, send, request files or set folder permissions, you can do so right on your smartphone or tablet. You can even edit Microsoft Office files or annotate PDFs.

YES! You can brand your File Cloud account to match the look and feel of your company’s logo, website and colors. That way, it shows off your brand, not ours — everything from the login page to the headers, colors and other details of your account can match your website or logo.

There are a lot of benefits that come with a client document portal. You have a tool on your website where you can File Cloud and storage with people in different locations. You no longer have to worry about losing important attachments or having miscommunication between people working on the same project. With a client portal, you only need to make changes once on a document and everyone will have access to the revised version of the file. Additionally, a customer portal improves the efficiency between you and your clients. It is a tool you can use to easily exceed your client’s expectations in any given project. For instance, it allows you to provide a central place where all the important documents can be accessed and also a central point for communication between you and clients. Finally, a client portal is a tool that your business will never outgrow. It will enhance the lifespan of your documents and even after projects are completed, you will have a permanent source of reference in case there are revisions or if you are working on similar projects in the future.

Encryption is a method for transforming data during either transfer or storage so that it requires permission to access. The data is transformed using an algorithm that generates a decryption key that must be used in order to open the data. When transferring sensitive files, it is important to use encryption to ensure that any outside sources cannot read the data contained within the files. All file transfers through the ShareFile service are encrypted using 256-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).  This is the same security used by banks and many e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com.  SSL works by establishing a private connection and each end of the connection is authenticated before transfer begins. Data traveling between these endpoints can only be decrypted by the intended recipient by using unique decryption keys. Files uploaded to ShareFile servers are saved with 256-bit AES encryption. Each file saved in our system has a unique encryption key. When a file is uploaded, it is encrypted before being copied to its permanent storage location. Downloaded files are decrypted before their contents are sent to your browser. The file encryption keys are not stored on the same server with the files themselves, ensuring that someone with physical access to our storage servers has no access to the files contained on their hard drives.

Files are uploaded and downloaded between the end user and the storage tier directly over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypted segment using high grade encryption. File Cloud supports TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. These are the same encryption protocols and algorithms used by e-commerce services and online banking. On Professional, Corporate, Enterprise, and VDR plans, files are stored at rest using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a 256 bit key. All uploaded files not pre-Internet encrypted, encrypted by the end user prior to upload, are scanned for known malware including viruses, Trojans, and worms. Files that reflect a known malware signature are flagged with a Red X and end users are subsequently prompted prior to downloading a suspicious file. Additional customer account preferences are available that would prevent end users from downloading a file until it’s been scanned and  from downloading a file that is suspicious. However, note that these stricter options may affect the overall usability of the File Cloud service.

When logging into the XcllHost File Cloud web application, you provide your email address and password at your account landing page. After a period of time your session will timeout and you will be prompted to login again. File Cloud Enterprise customers can opt to integrate with Active Directory and redirect this login process. Apps built using the File Cloud API (File Cloud Desktop Apps, File Cloud Mobile Apps, and third-party apps) are not allowed to capture or store the user’s credentials and typically only need limited access, so the File Cloud API leverages an industry standard protocol called oAuth 2.0. According to the oAuth community site, oAuth is “an open protocol to allow secure authorization in a simple and stand method from web, mobile and desktop apps.” For more on oAuth see the community site and the IETF specification. File Cloud stores an oAuth token instead of your credentials and then uses that token to access the File Cloud API instead of your credentials. This allows a tool like File Cloud Sync to run in the background happily keeping all your files in sync without needing to prompt you for a password every time a change is made. This token has limited access to File Cloud only, so it is less of a security risk than storing your credentials. The way authenticating with oAuth tokens works is that File Cloud first prompts you for your email address and password using a secure web form that is similar to the one used when you login to the web application. If using AD integration, we redirect you to configured IdP for the initial authentication. Once you have successfully authenticated, the secure web form provides the application with an oAuth token that is securely stored in the application. All subsequent access is done using this token you will not be asked for your credentials again until the token expires. The expiration for this token can be set by File Cloud administrators in Advanced Preferences. If you lose access to the device where the File Cloud application was installed, you can manually expire the oAuth token in the File Cloud web application under My Settings. Administrators can also expire an oAuth token on behalf of a user in that user’s profile page in Manage Users. Disabling a user will also expire all tokens for that user. Since these tokens act as a replacement for your password, they are not tied to the password expiration policy (either within File Cloud or to an AD password expiration). You will not need to reauthenticate with a tool when you change your password, but only when the oAuth token expires.

When logging into the XcllHost File Cloud web application, you provide your email address and password at your account landing page. After a period of time your session will timeout and you will be prompted to login again. File Cloud Enterprise customers can opt to integrate with Active Directory and redirect this login process. Apps built using the File Cloud API (File Cloud Desktop Apps, File Cloud Mobile Apps, and third-party apps) are not allowed to capture or store the user’s credentials and typically only need limited access, so the File Cloud API leverages an industry standard protocol called oAuth 2.0. According to the oAuth community site, oAuth is “an open protocol to allow secure authorization in a simple and stand method from web, mobile and desktop apps.” For more on oAuth see the community site and the IETF specification. File Cloud stores an oAuth token instead of your credentials and then uses that token to access the File Cloud API instead of your credentials. This allows a tool like File Cloud Sync to run in the background happily keeping all your files in sync without needing to prompt you for a password every time a change is made. This token has limited access to File Cloud only, so it is less of a security risk than storing your credentials. The way authenticating with oAuth tokens works is that File Cloud first prompts you for your email address and password using a secure web form that is similar to the one used when you login to the web application. If using AD integration, we redirect you to configured IdP for the initial authentication. Once you have successfully authenticated, the secure web form provides the application with an oAuth token that is securely stored in the application. All subsequent access is done using this token you will not be asked for your credentials again until the token expires. The expiration for this token can be set by File Cloud administrators in Advanced Preferences. If you lose access to the device where the File Cloud application was installed, you can manually expire the oAuth token in the File Cloud web application under My Settings. Administrators can also expire an oAuth token on behalf of a user in that user’s profile page in Manage Users. Disabling a user will also expire all tokens for that user. Since these tokens act as a replacement for your password, they are not tied to the password expiration policy (either within File Cloud or to an AD password expiration). You will not need to reauthenticate with a tool when you change your password, but only when the oAuth token expires.

File Cloud accounts are stored on servers maintained by Amazon Web Services in multiple locations across the globe. An account’s data is generally stored at the server location that is geographically nearest to the administrator. All data centers containing File Cloud servers are SSAE 16 certified, proving that they meet high standards for security. Physical access is tightly controlled, and double verification is required to proceed to any areas housing data. Our servers are firewall protected and regularly updated to ensure that all of the latest security patches and updates are in place. File Cloud has established operational procedures to maintain the availability of the system and user data, as appropriate and agreed to with users. File Cloud procedures take into account system capacity needs, physical and environmental threats to system resources, and recovery timelines needed to uphold service levels. Servers in the control plane are configured for high availability. Databases automatically fail over to an on-site secondary node, and data is further replicated at a geographically segregated disaster recovery site. Replication delays are monitored and addressed in order to meet recovery point objectives. For XcellHost-managed StorageZones, storage infrastructure is hosted with AWS and Microsoft Azure and availability is monitored real time by the network operations group. Customers managing their own StorageZones are responsible for availability, capacity planning and disaster recovery for uploaded data in these StorageZones.

All File Cloud employees undergo full background checks and sign our handbook prior to beginning employment with the company. The handbook includes an agreement to maintain the privacy and security of account information. Account information and support functions are accessible only from the IP address of File Cloud’s physical office locations. Company policy prohibits employees from accessing accounts or client data except where they have been expressly granted permission by an account administrator for the purpose of support. Any logins or activity by File Cloud Support will be logged in the account activity reports and available for review by account administrators.