The rapid development of information technology is one of the most remarkable achievements of the modern world. As their name suggests, they are transforming interpersonal communication and information management—the building blocks of human civilization. Language, writing, printing, the transistor, the internet: Increasing technological complexity brings numerous benefits, but it also complicates the most fundamental requirements that people have expected from communication for literally millennia: the possibility of private conversation and the possibility of a trustworthy record.
The difference between a Czech ministry and a Formula 1 team
Anyone wishing to participate fully in economic competition today is compelled by the market to make use of IT advances and thus also deal with their inherent shortcomings. Information may spread at lightning speed around the world, but anyone can copy and alter it—unless appropriate measures are in place to restore the characteristics of communication disrupted by the medium while allowing the full potential of that medium, namely modern communication technologies, to be used.
The Czech Ministry of Transport recently encountered the problem of easily rewriting digital data when the antitrust authority cancelled its tender for an electronic toll system operator. The reason was simple: the Ministry provided tender documents to individual bidders on ordinary, rewritable flash drives, making it impossible for bidders to verify whether everyone had received the same specifications.
So how can we ensure that important documents, in their authentic form, reach the right hands safely and beyond dispute, rather than elsewhere? The Czech Ministry of Transport could try distributing read-only hardware, or use a solution such as Acronis Files Advanced—software developed specifically for securely sharing information across companies or institutions, with external and internal users, with multiple levels of access, and using almost any devices. Files Advanced offers the ability to set rules for complete control over access (including read-only access) to specific files and folders and from specific devices, while data transmission is always end-to-end encrypted. At the same time, Acronis Files Advanced can create audit logs that enable full transparency wherever it is needed.
“We can monitor information flows and even wipe a stolen laptop, tablet, or mobile phone so that unauthorized persons cannot access its contents,” praised the solution Raffaele Boscheti, IT manager of the Scuderia Toro Rosso team.
Computers on our desks and in our pockets are now, more than ever, reduced to an ergonomic interface through which we communicate with remote data centers. (What value does an iPhone have if it cannot connect to Apple servers?) The trend of interconnecting individual computing devices—or rather, the increasing dependence of end devices on central servers (and flourishing distributed systems)—allows administrators with the right tools far more comprehensive control over data flows, thereby naturally increasing their security (to the extent that the administrator and server operator are trustworthy). The privacy of individual users need not suffer—Acronis Files Advanced can distinguish between corporate and personal data, leaving the latter untouched. If a technician leaves the Scuderia Toro Rosso team, only data related to their now former job is deleted from their personal device.
A final thought
Formula 1 teams, like other companies and government offices, need to secure access to sensitive information while also being able to carry out audits required to operate in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Unlike government offices, however, most companies cannot rely on a bottomless state treasury and subsidies for inefficient work. Do not let the rapid development of IT sweep you away; instead, deploy a modern and effective solution for secure data sharing: Acronis Files Advanced.
Article author: ZEBR.ai editorial team
