Security

Customer data in DocuWare Cloud is protected in accordance with generally accepted technical rules and standards. This is ensured by the IT infrastructure and technologies from Microsoft Azure Security Services and DocuWare, as well as their compliance with current data protection guidelines.

IT Security

DocuWare Cloud ensures the security of your data through encryption of documents and communication, a sophisticated rights concept, access restrictions, and security audits.

Document encryption

All documents archived in DocuWare Cloud are automatically encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Documents migrated from DocuWare on-premises systems can be encrypted subsequently. AES is a symmetric encryption method that meets the highest security requirements. For example, it is approved for use by the US government as the encryption standard for documents with the highest security clearance level (top secret).

In the AES procedure, an asymmetric key pair is generated for each file cabinet. The private key is used in turn to encrypt the symmetric keys which are created when the documents in a file cabinet are encrypted. The private key of the file cabinet is then encrypted again with a master key.

For maximum protection, DocuWare uses a 256-bit key length for encryption with AES. A key length of 1024 bits is used to encrypt the symmetric keys. A new symmetric key is generated for each document. This means that even during cryptanalysis, no patterns can be detected and no keys can be calculated.

Encrypting communication

Within a data center used by DocuWare, all customer data is secured via a VPN (virtual private network). In addition, the network infrastructure is virtualized and the virtual network is isolated from the outside.

The current TLS protocol (successor protocol to SSL) is used to encrypt data traffic between users and the data center, provided it is supported by the browser used. TLS is used for all traffic based on HTTP (HTTPS) and TCP. This means that users can immediately see in their browser whether their connection is secure and validated: When the connection is secure, the URL address turns green (except in Google Chrome).

For further protection against external attacks, there are additional security layers and functions, such as HSTS for protection against protocol downgrade attacks and cookie hijacking.

Authentication

For secure and convenient authentication, you can use Single Sign-On (SSO) to use the credentials of just one account for all DocuWare applications. To do this, you need to connect your organization to an identity provider. DocuWare supports Microsoft Azure Active Directory und Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (4.0) as identity providers.

By clicking on the single sign-on button in the DocuWare login dialog, the user is redirected to the identity provider. After successful authentication, login in DocuWare is automatic, regardless of whether the user logs in via DocuWare Client, DocuWare Mobile, the Desktop Apps, in configuration or administration.

DocuWare also supports Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for SSO. DocuWare uses OpenID Connect for this, so the ADFS version in Windows Server 2016 or higher is required, since OpenID Connect is only supported there.

It should be noted that in Azure Active Directory, Microsoft makes some default settings for logout in single sign-on, specifically persistence of browser settings and validity period of tokens. Detailed documentation is available on the Microsoft website:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/howto-conditional-access-session-lifetime

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-configurable-token-lifetimes

Rights concept

DocuWare Cloud has a sophisticated rights system. An essential element of rights administration in DocuWare is the distinction between functional rights and file cabinet rights.

Functional rights are assigned per DocuWare organization and refer to specific functions. These include, for example:

• Manage users

• Configure file cabinets and document trays

• Design workflows

• Use stamps

• Create and edit configurations of DocuWare components, such as Connect to Outlook, Smart Connect, or DocuWare Forms

File cabinet rights refer to a specific file cabinet and the documents stored in it. File cabinet rights include:

• Administrative permissions, e.g. manage rights or dialogs, or migrate documents

• General permissions relating to documents in the file cabinet, e.g. store, search, edit, or delete documents

• Overlay permissions, e.g. stamp documents, add annotations or graphical elements to documents, or delete annotations

• Index field permissions, e.g. change field contents or use field entries that are not in a select list

Rights for users and administrators

For all configurations of DocuWare Cloud, for example document trays, file cabinets, or forms, you assign permissions – either directly to users or via roles. There are two different types of permissions: User rights allow you to use the object in question. Administrator rights allow you to change the object or the associated configuration.

Access limitation through data separation

DocuWare Cloud strictly separates customer data – one DocuWare organization per customer – from system data.

Administrators of DocuWare Cloud systems only have access to the system data that is urgently needed for operation. See also the section "System Support with 24/7 Availability> Maintenance."

The DocuWare administrators of the customers have full access to their respective organization settings, but not the settings of the DocuWare system.

Security audit

Regular external and internal penetration tests help to maintain the security of the systems at the level of the generally accepted technical rules of technology. The results of the penetration tests are critically scrutinized by the external auditors during regular certification for the SOC2 standard.

In addition, Azure Security Services provides detailed risk reporting so that any problems that arise with Microsoft Azure can be resolved immediately.

Customers can create document, archive, and organization-level audit reports within their organization and export them to universal CSV format for easy analysis. For example, this makes it clear who changed which settings, or stored or deleted which documents, and when. For example, the records can be used to document compliance with legal guidelines.

Analysis of telemetry data

Real-time security analyses of telemetry data are carried out to check whether unusual events are occurring within DocuWare systems in comparison to normal operation. If such events are detected, appropriate action shall be taken. The investigations include:

• Database accesses (access location and command semantics)

• Error rate

• Performance changes

• Login attempts

• Critical system updates

• Network traffic

Data Security and Data Protection

Data security and data protection are business-critical functions that require continuous monitoring and management. DocuWare reliably guarantees the security, protection, and recoverability of customer data when configured and handled correctly. DocuWare supports the customer in their compliance with the applicable regional data protection law. Data protection through technology design (privacy by design) has been a key principle for DocuWare since the company was founded in 1988. The technical and organizational measures (TOMs) can be found here.

Data security

DocuWare Cloud always stores multiple copies of the data so that it is protected from planned and unplanned events, including transient hardware failures, network or power outages, and massive natural disasters. All documents that customers work with (productive data) are encrypted (see section Document encryption) and stored in a Microsoft Azure data center (main location). This applies both to the documents in file cabinets and to those in document trays.
In addition, two copies of each individual document are stored in this data center immediately after it enters or is modified in DocuWare.

Furthermore, to secure the entire live data inventory against major incidents such as earthquakes or aircraft crashes, three copies of each document are copied to a second data center located at another location in the same region (georedundant storage, GRS). Both locations always have the current version of each document.

Data protection

The operation of customer systems is subject to the applicable regional data protection laws.

Data center locations: Customer data is hosted in Microsoft Azure data centers in the following regions: EU, US, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand.

Country-specific mapping to data centers: A detailed list with the country-specific mapping of DocuWare Cloud customers to Microsoft Azure regional data centers can be found here.

Using Microsoft Office Online: When a customer uses Microsoft Office Online, the document is transferred to a Microsoft Azure data center, usually one near the user's geographic location. Since DocuWare has no influence on the data center used, it cannot be guaranteed that documents will not leave the respective region of the data center used by DocuWare – EU, USA, Japan, Australia/New Zealand.

Backup

With the backup strategy included in DocuWare Cloud, DocuWare enables recovery of documents and metadata to protect the customer’s business now and in the future.

Documents: Deleted documents can be restored independently by the customer via the trash bin within 30 days. If this period has elapsed, the procedure outlined below for restoring from backups is used.
In addition to the redundant copies of the encrypted productive data mentioned in the data security section, an additional copy is made and stored in a continuous backup. This happens shortly after the document has been stored or modified in DocuWare. The backup after document modification creates a new copy of the document. This is saved in addition to existing backups of the document. This always applies, regardless of whether document versioning is enabled or disabled in DocuWare. The advantage of enabled document versioning is that the customer can access older document versions directly in DocuWare. Restoring a previous document version follows the same rules as document recovery, see below.

Metadata: Full database backups of the metadata happen every week, differential backups every 12 to 24 hours, and transaction log backups every 5 to 10 minutes. The frequency of transaction log backups is based on the compute size and the amount of database activity. You can find more information on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/automated-backups-overview.

Cold Storage: To enable a recovery, DocuWare backs up both the metadata and the documents in a separate cold storage. This cold storage is located in a Microsoft data center within the respective region, currently in Amsterdam (Netherlands) for the EU, Virginia (USA) for the Americas, in Osaka for Japan, and in Victoria (Australia) for Australia and New Zealand. It is physically completely separated from the DocuWare domain(s) and is subject to extended security regulations, so that the data is also protected against possible damaging events in a DocuWare domain (e.g., cyber-attacks).
The full database backups of the metadata are carried out in the cold storage predominantly at weekends, usually during regional nighttime. The documents are backed up directly to cold storage.
The generation of backups in the cold storage is automatically monitored continuously.

Recovery: Point in time restoration of documents is possible to any time within the retention period of 7 days. DocuWare requires the customer to provide information about when the document to be recovered was still accessible. The customer must send the request to DocuWare Support (https://support.docuware.com) no later than 5 days after deleting or modifying the document. Restoration of documents after 7 days must be checked in cooperation with DocuWare Support.
Documents and metadata can be restored to the state of any weekend within the retention period of 3 months or to the state of the first weekend of a month within the retention period of 12 months. After 12 months, documents and metadata can be restored to the state of the first weekend of any calendar year until contract termination.

Recovery is possible only in cooperation with DocuWare Support. If recovery is necessary due to incorrect operation on the part of the customer (e.g., due to accidental deletion or modification of documents), the costs for recovering will be additionally charged.