To cut right to the chase – Dropbox is secure enough for law firms to use. They use solid encryption (once the files reach Dropbox) and you can enable two-factor authentication to further make sure your files stay protected.
There is a caveat though – if you decide not to opt for a Business plan, Dropbox is really only as secure as the devices you allow to access the files.
Benefits of a Dropbox Business Plan – Hacking Protection
With a business plan, you have licenses to share with your team – so if you let someone go, you can revoke their access to all of your files on Dropbox within minutes, and if they have a device that is compromised, you can do the same thing.
Additionally, the admin on the account can lock their permissions to share files so you can keep all files private except for the people that need to see them.
If You Opt For Individual Dropbox Plans
Both revoking access and limiting someone’s ability to share access is much more complicated if you use individual Dropbox plans and utilize shared files from account to account.
In that scenario, you have to go file folder by file folder and revoke access, and if they load the files onto their personal Dropbox it is not possible to retract them. Additionally, you cannot set the option for a link to a shared folder to expire without a business plan.
Difference Between a Document Management System and Cloud Storage
To get more into the weeds, while security isn’t something that is a major concern with Dropbox, its utility is.
A robust Document Management System (DMS) is a sophisticated tool that allows for document tagging & profiling, comprehensive search with OCR (so you can search text in images or PDFs) etc. While Dropbox is improving its tools (such as version management, scanner integration and more), there are some key elements that it simply doesn’t do as a cloud storage provider.
In the end – Dropbox is a great tool for law firms until they are managing a hundred active cases or more. At that point, it will likely become a drag on your firm’s productivity and other options should be considered.
If you want help finding a Dropbox-like cloud-storage provider with more robust tools, please feel free to contact us to schedule a consultation.
