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ShawnCie
5 pts.
 Secure data transmission
Data Encryption, Data-security, Encryption, Secure Data Transfer
What's the best solution for a company that wants to securely receive documents from other business partners electronically. The company in question frequently receives documents containing financial information from other external entities. The company would like to ensure that the documents being received are securely transmitted. Is this enough reason to set up a VPN or would the use of encrypted files over the internet be a better solution?

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ASKED: April 26, 2010  5:18 PM
UPDATED: April 28, 2010  2:01 PM
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It depends on the organizations and what technology they wish to use. Both options are legitimate and come with their own issues and rewards. I would suspect encrypted and digitally signed files would be the best method.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  April 26, 2010  8:16 pm  by  Labnuke99   32,720 pts.
All Answer Wiki Contributors:  Labnuke99   32,720 pts.
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You could use PGP, to securely send financial documents. I think setting up a VPN would be too troublesome but it’s best to choose what ever suits your company best.

Ugauga
 590 pts.
 

I suggest using IPSec VPN for secure transfers between two offices…Even ADSL routers these days have support for VPN..They offer wizards to configure VPN which are much simpler…Over and above setting up VPN is a one time process…A few devices I know of also allow you to scan VPN traffic….So you are cent % sure that the VPN traffic is threat free…I hope this helps…

Nirav
 35 pts.
 

I’d better not use VPN in your situation.

Why? VPN is good and necessary if your business partners are required to fill-in the financial records directly into your databases, and require a lot of additional security configuration on both DB and network level to prevent them from unauthorized access to your resources. If you’ll just receive electronic documents with sensitive information, the encrypted mail (by PGP or GPG, as ugauga suggested) is much better – and easier to configure.

Another possibility – a file drop-in boxes on a properly secured (with cert/password authentication) http-over-ssl (https) website?

BR,

Petko

petkoa
 3,120 pts.