Last year we were tasked with building a secure file transfer system for a client, to add to their infrastructure. Their principal need for this system was for transferring files externally, i.e. between their staff and their clients, in a secure manner and environment. This would solve requirements for both general security when sharing data externally as well as specific compliance, e.g. the GDPR and enterprise service agreements.

The industry-standard solution is to use SFTP – this is where files are transferred securely using the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), which uses the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. This means that the file transfer connection and the file contents are both encrypted.

Typically organisation-level SFTP solutions are enterprise grade, meaning they are costly to implement and use – for example IBM’s ‘Sterling Secure File Transfer’, which has obfuscated tailored pricing but starts from around £4,000 per month.

Furthermore, SFTP can be used via CLI (command line) or via FTP (file transfer protocol) software. These approaches usually require technical knowledge and would not be considered standard software for everyday users. So a more user-friendly interface would be preferred – even better if it is web-based, so external users do not have to download or install any software outside of their own organisation’s environment.

Therefore there were three challenges for the required solution:

• Ensure a secure (i.e. encrypted) environment for both transfers and data stored.
• Avoid enterprise level entry costs and maintenance.
• Provide an easy-to-use interface for both internal and external users.

We developed a custom web app to meet all these requirements, which uses SSH over SFTP, and is hosted on the client’s private cloud in London UK. The Fileshare is discreetly branded and located at a subdomain of the client’s main domain, e.g. ‘share.companyname.com’. It works using a secure isolated application which communicates via a secure proxy to the web interface. All interactions with and transfers to/from the Fileshare are encrypted at all times. Internal and external are assigned login credentials with appropriate permissions – all clients and users are isolated from one another for data security.

Access is granted internally and externally only upon request. All access requests are reviewed internally, and access is removed once no longer required or after a defined expiry period. We also helped develop the internal processes for the client to help facilitate such access requests and removals, using Microsoft Power Automate.

Contact us for a demo of this solution or to discuss your own requirements.

The images shown are from the demo environment, not the client platform, for security reasons.