Companies explore self-detonating data as security control

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/050213-self-detonating-data-269359.html

By Ellen Messmer
Network World
May 02, 2013

The popular Snapchat photo-messaging app used mainly by Android and iOS mobile 
device owners to share images that then self-destruct after 10 seconds is the 
sort of security idea that businesses say can help them secure online 
transactions with business partners.

“It puts controls on what people see, and I can put expiration dates on 
sensitive documents,” says Marc McDonald, owner of Chicago-based Midland Metal 
Products that a few months ago started using the software-as-a-service called 
VIA from Intralinks Holdings that now lets the maker of store fixtures share 
computer-aided design files for custom manufacturing with business partners. 
Midland Metal Products restricts download of sensitive information and also 
sets a time for the files to self-destruct. McDonald says the 
password-controlled VIA option is simpler and has more security controls than 
the Dropbox option he’d previously used.

While Intralinks sometimes casually refers to the collaboration service, which 
is priced at $25 per user per month as a “Snapchat for the enterprise,” it’s 
not related to the real Snapchat, which was launched in September 2011 by 
Stanford students Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy as a way to share “impermanent 
photos” taken on mobile devices through their Snapchat app.

After a short period of time, each Snapchat image is said to be deleted from 
the devices and the Snapchat servers. The still-evolving Snapchat service, 
which has started to receive venture-capital funding, is proving popular with 
teens and young adults that now send millions of Snapchat photos and videos 
each day. Snapchat is also starting to be noticed in business circles in 
connection with questions about whether unauthorized photos and images of 
sensitive business information are being sent via mobile devices.

[...]

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