Many online applications, like insurance sites, healthcare portals and messaging apps, rely on the secure uploading and download of business-related files. Unrestricted file uploads are a major attack channel used by malicious hackers to inject malware and take information.
A reliable file-upload system should ensure that uploaded files comply with the permitted types of files, and then scan them for viruses prior storage. This ensures that the personal information of the clients are not disclosed, and is compliant with standards like HIPAA (for health-related data) and GDPR (for EU citizens).
It is important to be able to identify the types of files, as attackers are able to “mask” malicious software by changing the names of files to acceptable extensions like.jpg or.gif. This means that your solution may not be able to identify the exact file type and would allow it to go without being noticed. You require a file upload system that also validates the extension of the file in order to prevent this.
Another way to protect against a variety of threats is to apply a strong encryption to all data in travel and at rest. This transforms files and messages into codes that are unreadable, and can’t be read by hackers even when they gain access to them.
In addition you can also set up an upload system for files that rejects files that do not match your namestamp conventions. This will help organize your team and also prevent confidential information from being revealed in the file names.