What is InstaSecure?
Why should I use InstaSecure?
What is unique about InstaSecure?
Does InstaSecure impose an overhead on users?
Is information control that big of a problem?
How does InstaSecure work?
Do I need to upload documents to your server?
What are the system requirements for InstaSecure?
What file formats are supported?

What is InstaSecure?
Brought to you by Sabeer Bhatia’s InstaColl, InstaSecure is a powerful software solution that gives you the ability to persistently control the access to, and the use of, documents. You can use InstaSecure to protect document and securely collaborate with others using their everyday applications - Microsoft™ Word, PowerPoint™, or Excel™. InstaSecure uses strong encryption technology to ensure that your documents are protected both in transit and at rest.

InstaSecure allows you to control who can view, print, or edit documents. You can also use policies to apply time restrictions to these actions, specify that the actions can only take place at a specific network location, or set the permission to allow access to documents off-line. You can then share this protected information with business associates inside or outside your organization and allow your associates to modify the documents and collaborate with you. All the while, you remain in control of your valuable information. InstaSecure also allows you to track activity, so you know who read, printed, or modified the document and when and where the activity occurred. You can be sure that users accessed the information in compliance with your security policy.

InstaSecure ensures that security travels with information to enforce access privileges and prevents unauthorized access. With InstaSecure, individuals can share documents securely without impacting productivity while retaining complete control over how that information is used.

Why should I use InstaSecure?
InstaSecure allows you to:

• Retain complete control over your documents even after you have sent them out to others.
• Set restrictions on who can read your documents and what they do with them.
• Have real-time awareness of document activities like opening and printing.
• Automatically update document content whenever any change is made anywhere.
• Assign, track and manage document lifecycle tasks for reviews, edits and approvals from within Microsoft Office
  

What is unique about InstaSecure?
The 400 million Office users (ENT News) creating the 7.5 billion Office documents annually (Tower Group) are faced with the challenge of effectively collaborating on documents, because 80% of digitized resources reside in individual hard drives (Gartner). InstaSecure is the first solution that brings document security and sharing capabilities to the desktop without requiring users to step out-of-band to manage their documents.. Users work within existing applications using existing functions such as Save and Print. Policies are easily created within the same appliations that users use to create and consume documents. InstaSecure ensures that your confidential information is not accessible without permission and allows fine-grained control over user actions to direct the way in which this information is used by downstream users.

Does InstaSecure impose an overhead on users?
Except  for a one-time download and install of the InstaSecure plug-in users do not face any overheads to secure and access their documents. InstaSecure is available as a managed service and allows users to share documents with their colleagues and contacts both within and outside their enterprise boundaries.

Is information control that big of a problem?
The increasing practice of using documents to communicate important information over wide and local area networks, intranets, and the Internet increases the likelihood that unintended or unauthorized users will discover the content or interrupt its transfer. When content is confidential, it is important to ensure its security.
Historically, information exchange has lacked one or more of the following critical security characteristics:

• Authentication, which guarantees that computers, users, or companies accessing protected content are who they claim to be
• Access control, which requires that users have the appropriate permission for viewing sensitive data
• Content integrity, which guarantees that no one altered the protected content
• Accountability, which provides an audit trail for tracking electronic transactions
• Recall ability, which dynamically denies access to data at any time
• Persistent control, which gives you control over content before, during, and after delivery

InstaSecure provides all of these functions to offer extensive security and significant flexibility when you distribute protected content.

Why is information hard to control?

Traditional security technologies such as firewalls and VPNs do a good job at protecting information within the secure network. But unlike network pathways and physical servers, information has no boundary and once confidential documents leave the enterprise permeter, existing solutions offer no way to ensure that this information is not abused.

How does InstaSecure work?
InstaSecure works as a layer on top of Microsoft Office and encrypts information to provide persistent protection and policy enforcement, no matter where the information resides. InstaSecure allows or prevents actions such as reading, altering, copying and printing information according to a user's privileges defined in the policy.

In addition, InstaSecure makes information protection a seamless part of the way work is done. For enterprises and users, InstaSecure automates policy enforcement and hides the complexity of secure collaboration, working behind the scenes of every day business processes. Unlike other approaches to information security, InstaSecure does not require users to modify or upgrade applications, change their work habits or move data.

Do I need to upload documents to your server?
No – InstaSecure does not require you to upload your documents to our server at any point of time. InstaSecure inserts a “security ribbon” to your documents that allows persistent control and protection – to access these secure documents, users need to connect to and authenticate themselves with the InstaSecure server.

What are the system requirements for InstaSecure?

InstaSecure works in conjunction with Microsoft Office (version 2000 and above) on Windows 2000 and above. A stable internet connection is also required.

What file formats are supported?
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. Support for other formats is in the pipeline.