blog

safedrop founder interviewed by AppSumo

Angus Bradley — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:10:58 +0000

Appsumo interviewed Angus last week in their "Tools of the trade" review, about the tools startups use to get things done.

Tell us about yourself in 280 characters.

Founder safedrop & Projectfusion. Interface and security obsessed entrepreneur libertarian who loves: people, laughter, simplicity, design, gadgets, sailing, Bushmills, philosophy, quick hacks, green tech.Hates: waste, interruptions, reinventing the wheel, bureaucracy,high taxes.

What 3 web services or software can you not live without?

See the rest of the interview here

3 steps to a lean business

Angus Bradley — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:52:08 +0000

We’re entering Appsumos Lean Startup competition, and they want to know how lean & cool we are, so we thought we'd share some tips. Why did we create safedrop? Angus was getting really narked at having to fire up gpg to send sensitive files over the net. And getting annoyed that legal folk were using legacy carbon heavy tools like motorcycle couriers and printers and CDRoms just to send files securely...

New feature - PDF delivery reports

Angus Bradley — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:51:36 +0000

We've just rolled out PDF delivery reports. These are sent out when your safedrop expires (which for most of our users, is after 1 week). The reports give full details of when the file was sent, and includes

More fines for UK councils who lose unencrypted laptops

Angus Bradley — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:23:28 +0000

Last week the Information Commissioner's Office issued 2 more fines, this time to Ealing and Hounslow. In both cases they lost laptops containing unencrypted personal data.

The amounts were fairly modest, £80,000 and £70,000 respectively.

Ealing council had a policy in place, so it looks like they hadn't rolled out the technology to implement it.

Security needs more than a nice statement of intent, it needs simple tools in place for all staff. And simple does not mean a vague reference to PGP or using disk encryption. These sort of tools are far to complex for most of us.

Some councils are getting it right. In 2009 when Lancashire council lost 4 laptops, they were remote wiped before anything nasty happened. Councils like Leicester and South Gloucester are using safedrop to send large and sensitive files, giving protection from mis-addressing and interception.

When your staff need to share sensitive files, what tools are available? Check it's not email or ftp.

Safedrop achieves Plynt security accreditation

Angus Bradley — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:37:31 +0000

We just passed security certification by plynt. As a secure web service, it's important that we get a reputable 3rd party to test our service regularly. We chose Plynt for the job as they publish very clear criteria of what they test against, they're very responsive, and have a fair pricing structure. Their certification criteria show what is tested, basically their security engineers go in and try to destroy safedrop, hack into messages and generally mess things up. Happily we passed

safedrop secure conversations

Angus Bradley — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:32:25 +0000

Now when you create a safedrop, you're not just sending a file, you're creating a secure conversation with the recipients. Anyone with access to the safedrop can reply, and attach files to their reply, all with high security.

Why is this exciting? Well now you request files securely from anyone. Or have a secure conversation. Or bounce a sensitive contract back and forth.

safedrop now lets you do things you can't do with email or ftp.

1 - Request a sensitive file

Need to ask someone for their mortgage application, or financial summary. Or password for the wifi? Send them a safedrop, and they can reply securely and even add attachments.

2 - Online Approval

I can send you a file, and you can comment on it. I can then send another, and another, until we're happy. You can approve the most recent version - your approval will be online, and in the audit trail for that safedrop. Multiple approvers? Just add them all to the safedrop.

The audit trail will contain all the comments, the approval, and the SHA checksums of every file. This trail can be kept online, printed, or filed back into your document management system. (see an example audit trail)

3 - Maintain a long term conversation

Every month I send invoices, receipts, and billing sheets to our bookkeeper on safedrop. When they request more information, I just add it to the conversation. All that months records are in one secure place.

4 - Give people access to a conversation.
I've just had a long chat with Tim on safedrop, and we've outlined a heads of agreement. I can now give my lawyer access to the drop, and she can draft a contract. She can even attach the contract to the drop, and ask Tim to approve it in the same place!

We've enabled safedrop conversations on all accounts, free and paid.

How are we doing? Let me know if there's other features you'd like to see!

The UK Information Commissioner issues first fines for data protection breaches

Angus Bradley — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:58:05 +0000

The ICO issued it's first fines today since gaining new teeth in April. First fine to Hertfordshire County Council, who faxed sensitive childcare details to the wrong person instead of the barristers’ chambers - £100,000 fine.

Next employment services company A4e for the loss of an unencrypted laptop which 24,000 peoples personal details - £60,000 fine.

Stewart Room gives a good view here: http://www.stewartroom.com/?p=792

How to send a secure email with safedrop

Angus Bradley — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:09:26 +0000

Here's a video to show how easy it is to send a secure email with safedrop.

yousendit vs safedrop - we're all about security

Angus Bradley — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:10:24 +0000

Yousendit is a great service for sending files, but we believe that in business protecting your data is paramount. With safedrop, details like self destruct, and anti password guessing protection are all built in.

AppVita score safedrop as 5 out of 5!

Angus Bradley — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:43:00 +0000

AppVita just reviewed safedrop, and they gave us a full 5 stars, in their words WOW!

http://www.appvita.com/2010/09/06/safedrop-the-secure-way-to-share-info-online/

They particularly liked:

Users can set all the controls for their own accounts
View your messages with a web browser or a desktop tool
Use the API to control even more elements of your account
Only 3 SafeDrop admins have access to the data on the company servers

Let us know what you like - and dont like too!