How Does Enterprise DAM Enhance Security for Digital Assets?

Last Updated: 

August 15, 2024

As digital assets are becoming a part of conducting business, companies must take critical measures proactively to keep digital files safe from malicious attacks or theft.

Digital asset management or DAM application is one such measure that can help you organise, share, and protect your digital files using a simple, centralised system.

But how exactly does this software enhance the security of your company’s digital assets?

Well, let’s find out.

illustration of digital asset management
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Key Takeaways on Enterprise Digital Asset Management

  1. Digital Asset Watermarking: DAM systems offer watermarking capabilities that protect digital assets by marking them with symbols, letters, or images, preventing intellectual property theft.
  2. Secure Marketing Materials: Watermarking project drafts and marketing materials before sharing with clients or third parties helps prevent unauthorised use and intellectual property theft.
  3. Protect Photos and Artworks: Artists and photographers can safeguard their portfolios and artworks by watermarking images, ensuring they remain secure from digital theft.
  4. Enhanced SSO Capabilities: Integrating DAM with Single Sign-On (SSO) streamlines user authentication and access management, improving overall security for digital assets.
  5. Streamlined Employee Access: DAM and SSO integration allows employees to access multiple systems using existing credentials, simplifying sign-in processes and reducing the need for multiple accounts.
  6. Robust Permission Controls: DAM applications enable administrators to control user access based on roles, ensuring that only authorised personnel access necessary digital assets, minimising the risk of accidental sharing or unauthorised access.
  7. Third-party Collaboration Security: DAM systems allow businesses to grant temporary access to external partners, keeping sensitive digital assets secure while enabling collaboration on projects.
Discover Real-World Success Stories

1. Digital Asset Watermarking

Most DAM applications have secure watermarking capabilities that can help you mark your digital assets.

The watermark can be a symbol, a series of letters, or an image. The choice is yours. Organisations often leave transparent watermarks on their digital assets to prevent intellectual theft.

DAM systems help companies attach watermarks to their digital files or assets, making others aware of the ownership of the digital property.

Watermarks can:

  • Protect Marketing Materials: You can watermark your initial project drafts or marketing materials before sharing them with your clients or a third party. This way, you will be able to prevent unauthorised use of your digital materials.
  • Keep Photos and Artworks Secure: Photographers and artists often need to showcase their portfolio or recent work with other people. Adding watermarks to your company’s photos or artwork will protect them against deliberate digital theft. 

Many DAM software can also watermark dynamic digital content like videos and GIFs. The system can imprint the digital watermark into every frame of the video files or every page of documents to keep them safe and theft-proof.

2. Enhanced SSO Capabilities

SSO or Single Sign-On can help people authenticate their work account credentials like email addresses to make them more secure.

With SSO, the IT teams of your company can manage and verify the permission levels of all relevant groups and individuals from one location.

When you integrate enterprise DAM with SSO, the professionals of your company can get immediate access to the relevant digital files without any hassle. Plus, the IT team will no longer have to manage more than one verified account for each user.

The application will help you manage user access in a secure yet scalable way, helping authorised people access the digital asset library with ease.

By implementing SSO, you can:

  • Streamline Employee Access: The combination of the DAM system and SSO will allow the employees to log in to multiple enterprise systems and databases using their existing credentials. 

It will simplify the sign-in process, reducing the need for separate credentials for different accounts or systems.

  • Improve IT Security: The integration of DAM and SSO will decrease the number of access points the IT team needs to observe and secure. 

This way, they can immediately deactivate or reactivate the employee's access to different digital assets, making it easier to protect them against potential theft.

3. Robust Permission Controls

DAM applications can help administrators control the overall permission level or user access level of people working in their companies.

Here’s how it works:

  • Role-based Access to Digital Assets in Large Companies: In a big organisation, professionals from different departments need to get access to relevant digital assets.

With DAM’s robust permission control, the departments will only get access to the files they need to do their job. It will help businesses prevent accidental asset sharing, unintended editing, or sudden asset deletions.

  • Third-party Collaboration: Sometimes, companies might need to collaborate with external partners, such as third-party agencies or freelancers, to complete their projects.

The DAM system will help you give them temporary access to a limited amount of digital assets with a few clicks while keeping the sensitive files out of their reach.

In short, enterprise DAM will ensure that your company is always in control of the permission level of each employee. They can only access the files they need to finish their work, keeping the unrelated data away from their reach.

Closing Thoughts

Watermarks, enhanced SSO, and powerful permission controls are the top three methods the DAM systems use to keep digital assets safe.

But they aren’t the only features of the software that keep the enterprise digital assets secure.

Most DAM systems also use audit trails, version control, encryption, password protection, metadata, and URLs to protect digital files from unauthorised access or theft.

So, is your company using enterprise DAM? If not, what measures did you take to protect your company’s digital assets? Let us know in the comments!

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