HR Consultants are benefiting from using Safe4

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HR Consultants no longer have to worry about the safety and security of communications with their clients

Safe4 Channel Development Director

Paul Stallard

 

HR Consultants are benefiting from using Safe4. Paul Stallard, Channel Development Director of Safe4, has stressed that by its very nature the information that is passed between HR consultants and their clients, particularly employee information, is extremely confidential. Of course, it is covered explicitly by the UK Data Protection Act of 2018, which has embraced the European General Data Protection Regulation. However, the loss or improper use of personally-identifiable information can lead to massive penalties and serious reputational damage.

 

Safe4 provides a highly secure online vault for HR Consultants to share and store confidential information. With over 48,000 users Safe4 is a well-established platform that provides a range of benefits:-

  • Complete confidentiality – Safe4 has been designed to be secure from first principles
  • A secure vault is set up for each client or employee of the principal client. There is no possibility of any unauthorised access to information – only specifically-invited and authorised parties can access the vault
  • All data is stored in the UK
  • A comprehensive audit trail captures records of all user activity
  • No information is actually sent by email. Whilst so-called “secure” email services might be able to transfer information safely between parties, they do not manage any documents or data throughout the life of a consultant / client relationship, or indeed of a client / employee relationship – Safe4 does
  • The Safe4 asset register allows information to be held as structured data and displayed in columns and rows similar to a spreadsheet or simple database. This is a highly secure and efficient way to hold specific details about an individual, allowing such confidential data as National Insurance numbers, bank details, and general personal information to be entered directly into fields online, as opposed to having to include them within a document
  • Automatic notification of any new upload, whether of a document or a data record
  • Signing documents online – this can cover service agreements between consultant and client, as well as contracts of employment for the clients’ staff. The Safe4 document signing facility is accepted by both HMRC and Companies House in the UK
  • The Safe4 compliance framework can be used as a means of sharing policy and procedure documents with staff, and can also provide confirmation that these documents have been read and understood

In short, the implementation of this approach can allow HR Consultants to furnish their clients with confidential information in a completely secure way, and can also be extended to allow the Consultant’s client companies to manage the information they handle on behalf of their own staff.

For more information on how HR Consultants are benefiting from using Safe4, please contact us. We will be delighted to share with you some of the success stories achieved so far.

Safe4 version 6.1 is released – managing large file uploads safely

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Alistair Stubbs

 

The release of Safe4 version 6.1 represents a significant move forward. The task of managing large file uploads safely has proved to be a considerable challenge, but members of the Safe4 development team, led by Alistair Stubbs and Darren Hamilton, have completely overhauled the upload function within the system to make it more secure and much more robust.

File size limit is increased to 2 gb

Safe4 can now accept uploads of up to 2 gb per individual file. Safe4 does not function in the same way as an FTP site by simply transferring files from one location to another, but processes files by checking for viruses and applying industry-leading encryption. Security policies are also enforced through whitelist and blacklist checking, as well as scanning for protective markings and rejecting the upload of password-protected files when appropriate settings are applied. This comprehensive content checking also extends to ZIP files, nested to an arbitrary level. Updating comprehensive audit trails enables the system to maintain a full record of all user activity.

The enhanced upload process now manages a series of queues, so that if network connections are broken, or hardware failure occurs in the server environment, uploads will still be completed without further user intervention.

Opportunities for new applications

The increase in the file size limit opens up new areas of opportunity for the application of Safe4. Capture of PST files from email systems is one area that is of great interest to law firms, who may need to store very large files as records of projects or cases. Medical requirements can also be addressed; video files generated by endoscope examinations are frequently very large, and can now be handled within the context of patient records.

Please contact us if you would like any further information on how Safe4 can be used within your organisation – we will be delighted to assist you.