Sharing Files, Staying SafeSharing Files, Staying Safe

A wide range of scientific, government, and business ventures are finding significant uses for peer-to-peer file-sharing technology. Accounting firm George Kaplan PC has deployed Groove Networks Inc.'s Virtual Office peer-to-peer file-sharing application to securely share files and collaborate over the Internet with clients.

The firm's clients typically use Intuit Inc.'s QuickBooks for accounting tasks. While sharing sensitive financial data over the Net might seem imprudent, particularly in light of recent breaches such as the one that occurred at information broker ChoicePoint Inc. (see story, "Privacy Is The Best Policy"), Groove's 192-bit encryption has proven secure enough to earn it several security certifications. Users say that Groove's built-in encryption offers significantly better security than simply sending QuickBooks and other files as E-mail attachments.

That's one way George Kaplan PC used to work with its clients. Alternatively, it would send disks with the data via the mail. The problem with such data exchanges, says George Kaplan, head of the six-person firm, "is it forces the client to stop working. If they continue to work, then the data they sent us, which we're going to make corrections or changes to, is out of sync with their live data file. So we end up doing the work twice under those scenarios." With Groove's peer-to-peer collaboration tool, the accounting firm can do the work on the file live.

Inpact Americas, an international network of independent accounting firms, started using Groove last July to improve collaboration and information sharing among members, says executive director Mara Ambrose. "Everything that goes over the Internet is encrypted at a military or government standard," Ambrose says. "They call it 'hacker-proof.' Now I'm sure nothing is hacker-proof, but this seems as close as you can get."

Inpact Americas turned to Groove because members weren't using the organization's Web portal enough; it required too many clicks, and members couldn't remember their passwords, Ambrose says. "What we're hoping will happen is the more information we put into Groove, the more members will use it, the more they will start to interact with each other ... to enhance their client service."