We’re all familiar with MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), but the chances are that you have yet to learn about MHA.
MHA, or Mutual Human Authorization, is a new digital communication protocol that SharePass is pioneering to help address persistent data privacy, security, and management gaps. Here’s how it works.
The Challenge
Each year, companies and individuals generate terabytes of documentation, emails, direct messages, CSV files, and other forms of digital communication. And while only a small portion of this information is sensitive, communicating privileged or confidential data represents one of the most critical privacy risks facing industries today.
Unlike stored data, information that has been or is in the process of being communicated is entirely out of your control and can never be edited, deleted, or revoked. In essence, each time a company or individual performs a digital information transfer, they are handing over their keys to a third party that now has complete and perpetual control over how it is handled moving forward.
Moreover, even apparently non-sensitive data may change its status over time. Future events may alter the value and confidentiality of the information. Yet, under most current communication methods, nothing can be done to revoke access once you hit ‘send’.
Privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA are undoubtedly helpful. Still, as the quantity and quality of our data increase, a shift in how we technically manage, store, and transfer data is sorely needed.
Simply put, the current state of affairs in which your data becomes someone else's property the moment it is shared is a massive privacy concern and an unwarranted and unnecessary value transfer. When users relinquish ownership and control over their communicated data, various forms of large-scale exploitation become available. We are already beginning to see the likes of many governments, tech giants, and malicious actors.
A new protocol is needed that enables companies and individuals to retain access, control, and ownership over their data for as long as they’d like, regardless of where it’s stored.
The Solution
Mutual Human Authorization solves this problem in two steps.
Step 1: Not all data is created equal. With SharePass, users can earmark sensitive (or potentially sensitive) information before sending, converting the sensitive data from cleartext into an encrypted link that looks like this:
Depending on how sensitive the data in question is, users can set various privacy controls, including access control, identity verification, authentication codes, authorized IP ranges, time-to-live, and link expirations properties.
Step 2: With Mutual Human Authorization, each time an authorized recipient clicks the link, a request is sent to the sender, who can then grant or deny access to the confidential data. This process ensures that the keys to your data remain in your pocket forever.
Furthermore, SharePass users are provided with a secure portal that automatically tracks and manages their encrypted links. Even once sent, data permissions can be altered at any time, letting users control their data throughout its entire lifecycle.
Additional Benefits of MHA
Besides providing an overarching framework for data privacy standards, MHA also mitigates known risks related to:
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The Dark Web: The Dark Web is populated with an incredible amount of leaked data. However, organizations implementing MHA will avoid being exposed to the Dark Web since the encrypted links will be worthless to unauthorized parties.
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Anti-Phishing: Phishing continues to be one of the most popular and successful forms of hacking. As software security improves, hackers adapt to more human-centric attack vectors to access company accounts. With MHA enabled, hackers who gain entry will still be locked out of any MHA-protected data.
To learn more about SharePass or sign up for a free trial, visit https://sharepass.online/
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