From day one, Files.com has always set itself apart by offering deeply powerful user and group management functionality. This includes flexible access, granular permissions, group administration rights, secure share links, single sign on, and two-factor authentication.

Flexible Access

We want security best practices to be natural for you on Files.com. That means creating a user for every purpose and following the principle of least access. Not everyone needs access to all your files. Some individuals need access to files distributed across different areas of the company – stored in different folders.

We’ve assisted creative site administrators in designing permissions-based security gates and funnels that guide their sensitive files safely through their data life cycles, making sure that the right people have only the access and control they need along the way.

No matter what industry you’re in, controlling access is a vital step to ensure data security. Files.com gives you all the tools to allow users the access they need to get the job done, without oversharing.

Granular Permissions

We also want your site administrators to find it easy to use the tools we provide so that they will take advantage of the platform’s strengths.

Assigning users the file permissions they need to get their work done is straight-forward. Adding and changing permissions is a snap through our interface, and changes take effect right away.

We support separate permission levels for full access, read only, write only, and read-write (but not delete). You can even assign permission to preview files on a per-folder basis for those users who need to check on things but don’t need to change them or see the original source documents.

And for your staff who help with reporting and record-keeping but don’t need file access or full administrative rights, you can assign permission to view activity logs without including unnecessary access or abilities.

Group Management

A well-managed group project can produce amazing results. Files.com supports customers who manage multiple thousands of users!

When you have large numbers of users to manage, like a revolving door of contractors, vendors, customers, or special project teams, then you want the convenience and fail-safe accuracy of groups.

Groups let you design the permissions and set the access required for a select group of users. Users can have different permissions when working within different groups, and you’ll always know that accuracy is assured.

1. Define a group to match its mission.
2. Design the access and permissions needed for that group to accomplish their mission.
3. Add and remove group members as needed.

Okay, you’ve set up your group for the secret special project, and you are ready to add the four hundred and sixty-two group members who will hammer it out in only eight weeks. But it is vital that access ceases at project close.

Will you remember to revoke their access or remove the users at the right time? Not to worry. You can remove the group, or, if you won’t need the users to have any access beyond a certain date, just define them with an expiration date. It’s that simple.

Delegate Administration to Group Administrators

We provide Group Administrator capability on our Power and Premier plans, allowing you to delegate user creation to trusted group members that you select.

You make it easy for them, because they can’t accidentally assign the wrong permissions -- you’ve already assigned permissions at the group level. Group administrators don’t have any other administrative rights that could get them into trouble. So, you’ve just made it easier for yourself too.

What about sharing outside the group?

Now that your secret special project is all buttoned up and ready for launch, you want to share it with the world. But you don’t want to make user accounts for everybody, right? What do you do?

Don’t worry, we have two features that make backend control sensible and easy to manage. Share links and web hosting mode allow you to provide public access to the files and content your rules specify.

Share links function like a bearer key; only those who possess the precise link can access the files. Set links to expire after a certain number of days, or manually revoke them at any time.

Web hosting mode allows you to turn a folder (or even multiple folders) on your Files.com site into a basic web server, serving documents from a custom URL -- even files containing javascript.

Yes, as you can imagine, we have seen some impressively efficient and secure workflows prepare documents and get them to the public using this feature. And if your wheels are starting to turn, and you would like to talk through the possibilities for your enterprise, get in touch.

Two-Factor Authentication

Allow your users to enable additional protection for their Files.com account with two-factor authentication (2FA). This type of multi-factor authentication requires two different factors in order to be granted access.

When enabled, users must enter their standard username and password. Then, the second factor is retrieved from a secondary device such as a smartphone or 2FA key.

Files.com offers five two-factor authentication methods to select from and our platform supports authenticating with 2FA via FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV.

Single Sign On

As an organization grows, both in headcount and in the number of on-premise and cloud services they utilize, the need for providing employees with a single identity to securely access those services becomes essential.

At Files.com, we know that whether you are a fast-growing startup, or an established enterprise with thousands of employees across the globe, you will appreciate the security benefits and streamlined user experience that Single-Sign-On (SSO) provides for your users.

Files.com customers have flexible Single-Sign-On options via LDAP, OAuth, and SAML. Support for popular SSO providers includes:

• Auth0
• Google Login
• JumpCloud
• Microsoft Active Directory (including Azure AD and ADFS)
• Okta
• OneLogin

Flexible Provisioning via LDAP

We don’t stop with granular permissions and single-sign-on. Files.com gives you the ability to merge your users and groups from existing systems over secure LDAP, while maintaining group memberships and enabling user access via all the interfaces and protocols that Files.com offers. This includes the Files.com interface, FTP/SFTP, even mount and sync direct integration with other platforms and cloud storage such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

You have full, individual control over both user and group syncing with options for adding users and/or groups only or deleting users and groups when they are removed from your authoritative server.

Plus, you get even more flexibility with group inclusion/exclusion rules featuring wildcard support. For example:

• Make anyone who is in any group whose name starts with files-* into a Files.com user.
• Make anyone who is in the group department-heads-* a side admin.

Simplify sync controls for enterprises managing a large number of groups. With automated hourly syncs, your Files.com user directory is always up to date.

From configuring secure workflows to setting up users and groups with the right permissions -- helping you imagine how your organization can work better is what Files.com is designed for.