You’re Sharing Files All Wrong — Here’s How to Do It Right (and Securely)
File sharing is critical to daily operations, whether it is sending pricing proposals, investor decks, or product roadmaps, most organizations rely on tools like email, Google Drive, or Dropbox to share documents quickly. But here’s the problem: the very tools that make file sharing convenient are often the reason sensitive files end up in the wrong hands.
If you’re a CIO or CISO, the stakes are even higher. Every email attachment or cloud-shared file could be a potential data breach waiting to happen. So the question is: are you sharing files securely, or just hoping for the best?
The File Sharing Problem No One Talks About
You send a confidential proposal to a prospective client. A few days later, you learn that your competitor has access to it.
You share an internal launch plan with a retail partner. It resurfaces outside your organization.
You forward a product roadmap to an investor. That document somehow ends up floating around industry circles.
These aren’t hypotheticals — they’re everyday realities for many enterprises. In most of these cases, the security breach didn’t happen because of hacking or phishing. The leak started from a simple, well-intentioned action: someone attached a file to an email or shared it via a cloud drive.
Once you send a file, you lose control. And that’s the core issue.
Why Traditional File Sharing Fails at Security
Most modern file-sharing platforms are designed for convenience, not security. Email attachments and shared drive links provide no protection once the file leaves your environment. Even if you trust the recipient, you can’t control what they do next — whether they forward the file, download it, or upload it somewhere else.
Surveys show that over 90% of shared business documents are meant to be viewed, not edited. Yet, we continue to send files rather than show them. That distinction is crucial.
Show It, Don’t Send It: A Better Approach to File Sharing
The most secure way to share sensitive documents is to let people view them, without giving them ownership.
At 689Cloud, we’ve built secure file sharing solutions around this principle. Instead of attaching files, we help you send view-only links. This way, your recipients can access the information they need, but can’t download, edit, copy, or re-share the files.
Here’s how it works:
SecureMail: Turn Attachments into View-Only Links
SecureMail integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Outlook and Google Gmail, converting traditional email attachments into secure, view-only links. The recipient can view the file, but downloading, printing, or forwarding is restricted, even if the link is shared with someone else.
The best part? There’s no learning curve. Your team continues using email as they always have — no new tools, no new workflow. Just better security.
SecureDrive: Set Document Access Rules in the Cloud
With SecureDrive, you can store sensitive files in the cloud and control exactly how they’re accessed. Set permissions such as view-only, watermarking, access expiration dates, and geo/IP restrictions. You maintain control over your data, even after it’s shared.
Whether it’s your sales team sharing pricing sheets or HR distributing policy documents, SecureDrive ensures files don’t fall into the wrong hands.
Built for Enterprise Security Without Sacrificing Usability
We understand that enterprise-level security often comes with enterprise-level complexity. That’s why our tools are designed to be:
- Easy to implement: No major infrastructure changes required.
- User-friendly: Integrated into familiar environments like Outlook and Gmail.
- Flexible: Set policies by document, user, group, or organization-wide.
- Scalable: Suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small teams to large enterprises.
And for teams that want to get started with minimal investment, we offer a free tier, perfect for light users who need to securely share PDFs and Microsoft Office files.
Why It Matters to CIOs and CISOs
As a CIO or CISO, your role is to protect your organization’s data while enabling your teams to move fast. Traditional file sharing puts you in a constant trade-off between usability and security.
With 689Cloud, you no longer have to choose.
Our solutions give you:
- Data residency control — Know where your files live and who’s accessing them.
- Audit logs and tracking — Full visibility into when, where, and by whom a document was accessed.
- Revocation capability — Revoke access to files at any time, even after they’ve been shared.
Break the Habit. Upgrade the Workflow.
People still send files as email attachments because that’s what they’ve always done. But habits shouldn’t come at the cost of security.
With threats like insider leaks, IP theft, and regulatory non-compliance becoming more frequent (and costly), now is the time to re-evaluate your approach to file sharing.
At 689Cloud, we make it easy for enterprises to protect sensitive data without slowing down the business.