As the business world becomes digital, electronic contracts come in handy on daily basis and they can easily be lost, misplaced, or accidentally destroyed. The old school techniques and on paper contracts just don’t work as efficiently anymore. Failure to protect contracts and the information they contain can put you and your business at risk. 

In this blog, we'll find out if your contracts are secure and what to do if they aren't. We'll also cover everything you need to know about contract security so that you can reduce the risk of contracting.

Firstly, let's start with the basics -

What is contract security?

Contract management security is a collection of methods and processes that ensure that only required or authorized team members to have access to contract information. Contract security measures help protect sensitive data stored in contracts, ensuring compliance with various data protection laws and protecting your best interests, and as the name itself suggest it’s like a secure protection for your contracts, which are important to you.

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Are your contracts really secure?

If you are still managing your contracts on emails or Google docs, the answer is no. Your contracts can easily be leaked or accidentally sent to the wrong person, putting you and your company at risk of losing millions!

Imagine one of your important licenses, sensitive information or intellectual property getting into the hands of your competitor firm just because one of your employees was slightly careless. You wouldn't want to risk losing your business over one small mistake right?

It's always better and advisable to play safe when it comes to your signed contracts, so why not follow some basic steps and protect yourself from unnecessary losses?

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But how often do you need to prioritise contract security?

Companies need to address contractual certainty depending on the type of the contract. The type of contract often determines the level of security required. For example, a simple AGB (Terms and Conditions) agreement may not need to be protected in the same way that a license or service agreement is protected. The latter contains sensitive financial information or certain data that should be kept private.

Now to the burning question -

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How can you protect your contract?

There are 4 simple steps to increase the security on your digital contracts and ensure that your contracts never end up in the wrong hands. Let's look at them one by one.

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1. The Storage

Imagine your company's contracts scattered across many filing cabinets and folders. This is exactly how it is right now, except now on your email and google drive. This mess makes it extremely difficult to manage contracts properly and would also increase the risk of accidentally deleting it or handing over the access to the wrong person.

A key step in ensuring contract security is setting up a central line of online storage. A cloud-based contract database gives control to your hands when it comes to providing access. SpeedLegal can come in handy to recuse you here, you can upload all your contracts on the channel and get them analysed as an additional benefit. 

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2. AES 256 bit-encryption

Another important step you can take is to encrypt all contract data at rest and in transit. Encryption prevents malicious attacks whether they are stored on the server or sent to the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution, or deleted from the CLM solution. Data privacy laws come in play here and provide you protection of all sorts.

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3. Digital signature

Fully encrypted signatures allow the detection of changes to contracts after signing. Additionally, electronic signatures support an audit trail, making them safer and faster than paper-based signatures. But don’t just go around signing contracts, now that it has been made easy. You must always go through the entire contract or get it reviewed by professionals for better understanding.

4. Role-based access

Setting role-based access control enhances security. This means that certain subscription types can be accessed by certain user groups, limiting unauthorized use. This is the hard and fast rule of keeping your contracts safe.

How can SpeedLegal boost contract security for SaaS users

SpeedLegal helps you understand your contracts in a better way. You can always upload your contracts here, along with getting them reviewed-you might also solve your storage issue and this could work as a centralised storage platform for you!

Solve two problems with one with single action i.e. two birds with one stone ( Ps- we don’t promote killing birds, it’s just a metaphor!) 

We here at SpeedLegal also prioritize access control, this is the most important factor where people lose millions when it comes to unauthorized access. Another benefit that comes with it, is contract life management, the great CLM you have been hearing about. 

Additionally, SpeedLegal has a feature called “Red Flag Table” or let’s say the RFT. Here all the red flags i.e. the concerning clauses in your contract are pointed out when compared to market standards. This is an awesome feature that you can use to keep yourself safe from being misguided. A little tip- Don’t fall prey to the scammers, run a background check on the services you use.

We hope this helps you secure your contracts better and make your life a little bit easier. :)