Digital Asset Management

17 Document security and digital rights management

Introduction

In the introduction, an asset was described as content with value. Unfortunately, assets of value are also of interest to unauthorised users. This may be a competitor wishing to access confidential corporate information, or it could be the piracy of digital entertainment: music, movies, or games. Some Internet piracy is in the domain of the lone hacker, who treats unauthorised access as a challenge. A bigger problem is piracy for commercial gain. Therefore, digital assets have to be securely wrapped to prevent access to all but authorised users that have been properly authenticated.

Document security and digital rights management (DRM) becomes more of an issue when a digital asset ...