Enterprise File Fabric Security

Storage Made Easy provides a hosted and private on-premises multi-cloud content management solution called the Enterprise File Fabric. The File Fabric provides unique content collaboration, federation, governance and data management features. This section of the Wiki outlines the security that is inherent within the hosted and on-premises versions of the File Fabric.

• Compliance Standards

For the hosted SaaS service SME uses multiple data centres in USA and Europe. All data centres are Tier IV facilities.

• USA: SSAE16 SOC1/2 compliant, have 24×7 armed security, facility surveillance, biometric + keycard access to the data floor, keycode access to the cage, plus our own surveillance on top of the facility surveillance.
• Europe: The Data Centers have ISO27001:2005, ISO9001:2008 certification, plus 24×7 security, facility surveillance, biometric + keycard + mantrap access to the data floor, locking cabinets with physical key access
• UK: This is a new facility, currently undergoing the iso 27001/9001 process and also has 24×7 security, facility surveillance, biometric + keycard + mantrap access to the data floor, locking cabinets with keycode access

All data centres have 24/7 physical security, facility surveillance, biometric, keycard entry authentication and mantrap access to the data floor uninterruptible power and backup systems.

HTTPS is configured by default for all users of the hosted version of the File Fabric and the Enterprise edition of the File Fabric.

A commercial server that uses HTTPS must have a public key certificate issued that verifies the entity. The end-user can verify the entity by clicking on the HTTPS icon from the browser.

Clients should connect to the File Fabric appliance using a URL that starts with HTTPS. (This is the default). A valid certificate is required.

Administrators should also connect to storage providers using HTTPS. For storage providers with a fixed endpoint including AWS S3, Azure, Google Cloud Storage the File Fabric always uses HTTPS.

Check out our online sites using Qualys SSL Labs site check.

Customer data is stored on storage services controlled by you, not stored on the applicance.

Amazon S3 Server Side Encryption can be enabled from the provider settings page under the Dashboard.

The appliance does have the ability to add additional encryption to that provided by storage providers. This can be added to nominated folders or to all folders and a key management system can be used (See Policies > Encryption)

The Enterprise File Fabric can be used to encrypt data transmitted to any storage provider that is under management by the solution. The File Fabric uses AES-256 encryption using the Rijndael cipher, with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) where the block size is 16 bytes. The cipher Rijndael consists of:

• an initial Round Key addition
• Nr-1Rounds
• a final round.

The chaining variable goes into the input and the message block goes into the Cipher Key. The likelihood of recovering a file that has been encrypted using our encryption is fairly remote. The most efficient key-recovery attack for Rijndael is exhaustive key search. The expected effort of exhaustive key search depends on the length of the Cipher Key and for a 16-byte key, 2127 applications of Rijndael;

Any AES-256 decryption tool that supports the Rijndael cipher with 16 byte blocksizes can be used to un-encrypt files. We also provide free desktop decryption tools for Mac, Windows and Linux that enable the decryption of a file if you download it directly from a mapped cloud ie. without any access to the File Fabric service.

View the online NIST certification.

See also FIPS U.S. Federal Government Validation of the Enterprise File Fabric™ Cryptographic Algorithm.

Clients can be authenticated against the internal user database or any directory service. The File Fabric includes out of the box support for Microsoft Active Directory, and services that support LDAP and SAML. Once authenticated clients use the authentication token for the remainder of the session.

Two-factor authentication may also be required with the options of Google Authentication, an emailed code, or a shared secret supported.

Our staff has no way to access a password as it is stored encrypted. There is a means to access meta-data in the logs and database related to an account if a user requests help with a problem, and this is only ever used if a user requests us to look at a problem or issue with an account. Even so, this still requires an Administrator to authorise access, and it still does not grant any access to any encrypted passwords.

If a storage provider supports OAuth, which is a mechanism to connect to a Cloud Provider without revealing password details, then the File Fabric uses this delegation mechanism to access the resource. For storage providers that don't use OAuth, authentication details are stored encrypted (AES-256 Rijndael CBC with salt).

For more information see Identity and Access Management.

Documents can be securely shared using the File Fabric in a number of ways:

• Documents can be encrypted on upload using 256 bit AES security. The private key is not stored on the platform and only known by the user.
• Private links can be created for documents and these can be combined with passwords to secure the document.
• Links can be set to be time expired and/or combined with private links and password for further additional document security.
• Watermarks unique to each file preview or shared file download can be added to enable tracing back how a file was leaked.
• Content Discovery monitors documents for sensitive data which can generate an email, quarantine, or initiate a workflow.

The File Fabric supports Access Control Permissions at a Role, User, or folder level for shared folders. The Permissions can be taken from Active Directory / LDAP if single sign-on is being used.

The File Fabric supports the ability to whitelist or blacklist IP addresses to allow / deny connections. This can be done at the Organization level (tenant) or on a per user basis.

For more information see IP Whitelisting / Blacklisting.

All file events that occur when using the File Fabric are recorded.

Reports can be accessed online, archived, and also exported as .cvs or excel files or the audit events can be configured to be output in syslog format so that log aggregators such as Splunk can be used to monitor / collate the resultant logs.

There are comprehensive governance / compliance / security options which can e configured by a File Fabric Administrator.

The File Fabric Administrator controls which devices and access clients that each user can connect from. By default all devices and access clients are enabled.  

The Admin can entirely disable a user or just choose to disable access from any of the devices/access clients from the users settings instantly disabling user access.

The compliance report recommends settings that could be changed to enhance security. The user can jump from the online report directly to where the setting can be changed.

In addition to encryption the solution includes a number of features for data security:

• Trash - Folders and files that are updated or deleted are saved in trash and can be restored.
• Versions - Unlimited or limited versions of files can be saved.
• Disaster Recovery - The ForeverFile™ archive is a backup, disaster recovery and ransomware protection feature that continuously protects data, wherever it is stored. For each primary storage provider that is being protected, a separate secondary or Backup provider is configured. For maximum availability the backup cloud should be located in another data center. It could also be with different cloud vendor, storage technology or tier.
• Antivirus - See Virus Scanning Protection.

The File Fabric is developed using the OWASP principle of Security by Design. Each product release, service pack, and patch is security audited and tested through the use of multiple third party security products.

Our own hosted Enterprise File Fabric Service, which features the latest iteration of bug fixes and features, is security tested daily.

Our public websites is scanned regularly through Trusted Site for security issues including malware, malicious links, and phishing.

We follow best practices in developing secure software, as mandated by GDPR, protecting for example against injection attacks, cross-site request forgery and session hijacking. We perform a third-party vulnerability code scan for each release.

These are the formats of the cookies are used. <site> is the unqualified hostname of the web address. The unqualified hostname of https://files.example.com is files.

Storage Made Easy is Cyber Essentials Certified.Cyber Essentials is a UK government information assurance scheme operated by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) that encourages organisations to adopt good practice in information security.It includes an assurance framework and a set of security controls to protect information from threats coming from the internet.

It specifically covers:

• Boundary firewalls and internet gateways
• Secure configuration
• Access control
• Malware protection
• Patch management

It was developed in collaboration with industry partners, including the Information Security Forum (ISF), the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises Consortium (IASME) and the British Standards Institution (BSI), and is endorsed by the UK Government.

Storage Made Easy was selected to be one of the CyberSecurity innovators of LORCA's third cohort.

LORCA is one of two cyber innovation centres as part of the National Cyber Security Strategy objective to grow the UK’s cybersecurity sector and make sure the UK is the safest place to live and do business online.

Security by Design was selected as one of the most pressing challenges. The office is now on the lookout for cybersecurity solutions that make it significantly cheaper or easier for products to be made secure.

This includes ensuring products are secure as standard, rather than requiring an add-on solution, and at code level, as this remains a challenge across the sector.