How to control access in a VDR: Key features and security insights

In today’s digital age, most businesses have switched from using physical data rooms to secure online data rooms for the smooth and integrated data management of their business transactions. These days, over 80% of executives seek various approaches and tools to industrialize M&A activities, including AI solutions, deal analytics, and secure virtual data room (VDR) solutions.

While a secure data room substantially facilitates deal activities, managing VDR access efficiently can be challenging. Ideals virtual data room’s access control features help manage users in a VDR seamlessly and efficiently. To make the most of its capabilities, this article will provide: 

• Best recommendations to configure granular access and data security settings.
• Best VDR features to prevent unauthorized access to highly sensitive data.
• Best practices to manage access in large teams.

Key features of Ideals VDR access control

Role-based permissions and document-level security settings secure confidential business information and control data room access in cross-functional teams and large organizations.

Role-based permission management

Ideals complies with the strictest data privacy compliance and security protocols, offering a role-based access system with the following access levels:

• Administrator
  Administrators have unrestricted access to user management, project settings, Q&A settings, document permissions, and activity reports
• Custom
  Custom participants are optionally allowed to manage documents, permissions, and users. Custom users can’t manage their group’s permissions
• User
  Users have access to permitted documents, can view their activity, and are optionally allowed to view the activity and users of their group.

Image: Setting role-based permissions in Ideals VDR

Configuring user roles in a VDR ensures that participants’ permissions align with their responsibilities.

Granular access settings

We have eight levels of granular permissions that allow customers to have more detailed control over document flow and ensure secure collaboration:

1. No access
2. Fence view
3. View
4. Encrypted download
5. PDF download
6. Original download
7. Upload
8. Manage

Granular access permissions can be applied to folders, subfolders, and individual files. Higher-level permissions automatically inherit lower-level permissions. Subfolders and individual files automatically inherit parent folder permissions but can be configured separately for security purposes.

For example, if a folder is granted original download permissions, subfolder, and file-level access permissions can be lowered to PDF download, encrypted download, view, and so on.

This approach allows our customers to set granular access controls and achieve a high degree of flexibility in data protection. It’s also easy to manage permissions. Simply tap on the permission bars to adjust the settings.

Image: File-specific permissions in a VDR

How to manage users in a VDR

Ideals’ customers can add and remove users, create user groups, and configure security settings within user groups through easy-to-implement steps.

How to add users to a VDR?

Our customers can add users to existing groups or during group creation. To add new users to existing groups, just click “Add participants” and follow simple instructions:

• Emails
  Enter participants’ email addresses
• Group
  Select the group you want to add new participants to
• Invitation language
  Select from 15 invitation languages, including English, German, and French
• Document notifications
  When enabled, participants will receive email notifications about permitted documents.

Image: Ideals user invitation menu

Configuring security options 

Customers can configure security options when adding new participants to existing groups:

• Project access
  ‘Unlimited’ sends instant invitations. ‘Deactivated’ delays user invitation until activated. ‘Specific dates’ enable automatic invitations, with users automatically removed at an end date
• 2-step verification
  When enabled, project-level two-factor authentication (2FA) settings will apply
• Allowed IP addresses
  When enabled, only designated IP addresses can access the data room.

Image: Configuring security settings while adding participants to existing groups

How to create user groups

The Ideals group creation menu allows for inviting new participants. You can always add participants to groups later. To add new groups, follow these simple instructions:

Feature permissions

1. Name
   Enter the name of the group, e.g., Bidder A.
2. Group role
   Choose whether the group is administrative (full management), custom (limited management), or user (limited access).
3. Available groups
   Select other groups that this group is authorized to manage.
4. Documents
   Check if the current group can manage document permissions in other selected groups.
5. Project management
   Check if the current group can manage project settings, Q&A settings, and recycle bins.
6. Participants
   Check if the current group can manage users to view other participants in selected groups.
7. Reports
   Check if the current group can view the activity of selected groups.
8. Document permissions
   Configure access permissions: fence view, view, encrypted download, PDF download, original download, upload, or manage.
9. Security
   Check the project access, 2-step verification, and IP address settings.
10. Participants
    Enter user email addresses and specify the invitation language.

Image: Ideals group setup menu

How to easily revoke access in a VDR?

It’s easy to remove participants from existing groups. Expand the group and delete/deactivate the target user.

Image: Deactivating and removing participants in Ideals VDR

You can remove users permanently (delete) or temporarily (deactivate). Deactivation removes access to the project and retains deactivated participants’ accounts, login credentials, and contact details, for potential reactivation.

How to audit VDR logs

Tracking VDR user activity is available in the Activity log panel in the Reports section. You can switch between projects and user groups and filter activity logs by action type, author, and date. Ideals tracks 75 actions across 10 action categories, providing comprehensive real-time tracking and auditing capabilities.

Image: Ideals data room activity log

Ensuring secure access to virtual data rooms

Advanced security implementations in a good virtual data room typically allow for securing confidential files and preventing online data breaches as reliably as the most secure physical data room. Ideals ensures secure storage of confidential data through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and advanced security permissions.

How to enable MFA in a VDR?

Most virtual data rooms offer multi-factor authentication. This feature requires users to provide a second authentication factor (one-time passcode). Ideals ensures secure login with MFA through SMS code and authenticator apps, such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Authy.

Using an authenticator app is highly recommended because it’s more secure than using an SMS code (which can be potentially intercepted during SIM hijacking attacks). Ideals’ customers can enable MFA on the project level in the Security panel.

Image: Ideals MFA project settings

Users can enable secure login through an authenticator app in personal security settings.

Image: Personal account security settings

How to prevent unauthorized access in a VDR

Unauthorized access can be prevented by applying document security permissions, particularly encrypted downloads. The encrypted download permission level requires users to authenticate before opening locally saved documents.

In this mode, editing, copying, and screen capturing are disabled. Encrypted download offers a few more data leakage prevention features:

• Access revocation
  Administrators can disable permissions on locally saved files, revoking access quickly when necessary. 
• Automatic access removal
  When deleted or deactivated, users will lose access to encrypted files, both online and those saved locally. This feature is particularly valuable at the end of the due diligence process, helping sell-side teams clean all M&A records much more quickly than with other virtual data room providers, let alone traditional data rooms.
• Timeout period
  Users are required to re-authenticate after a timeout period The default is eight hours, but the Ideals customer support team can customize it.
• Excel permissions
  Formulas can be disabled in encrypted Excel files for additional security. This is a unique feature that other virtual deal rooms can’t offer.
• Watermarking
  Watermarks are dynamically applied to protected files, displaying user information and time stamps.

Image: Ideals encrypted download permission

Best practices for VDR access control

Ideals VDR offers reliable access control solutions for large-scale teams, making secure data room management easily scalable during complex financial transactions. Our customers can use a few solutions to make large-scale VDR access management easy and efficient.

Importing participants in bulk

Our customers can import users in bulk efficiently using pre-configured Excel templates. To invite bulk users, customers can click Import in the Participants section, download, and fill out the template. This allows for allocating multiple users across groups, making bulk invitations much more convenient.

Image: Importing bulk participants

Enabling group permissions in advance

Our customers can adopt these VDR access best practices to simplify access management across large-scale teams:

1. Upload confidential information first
   Uploading relevant documents first allows for better control over permission management later. When new files are added to the root project folder, they inherit default project permissions across user groups, giving administrators and managers greater control of document sharing, particularly sensitive information.
2. Next, create groups
   Creating groups before inviting participants simplifies further permission management. This approach allows for setting permissions for core user groups and relieves administrators from revisiting file and user permissions when uploading new files or inviting new users to existing groups.
3. Invite participants last
   Allocating participants across groups with preconfigured permissions allows administrators to control access securely. This approach relieves admins from assigning permissions to individual users and minimizes the risks of assigning incorrect permissions when managing internal employees in bulk or inviting external parties. Moreover, administrators can view projects as other users, which helps them double-check user permissions when necessary.

Case study: Ignis 200 million M&A transaction

Igins, one of the largest renewable energy developers in Spain, successfully secured a €200 million investment using Ideals. Before Ideals, Ignis used traditional cloud storage solutions that couldn’t meet the need for secure document storage and private document sharing. Ideals helped Ignis work in a fully controlled environment securely and efficiently. Ignis saved over eight administrative hours per week and managed access permissions securely across multinational teams.

“Being able to see the platform from the point of view of each user group, so when we move files we can make sure that everyone can still see them,” said Laura Martínez Fúster, M&A Manager at Ignis.

The bottom line

• Virtual data rooms provide role-based permissions to ensure tight control over document privacy and protect sensitive data to the highest security standards.
• Ideals customers can easily manage bulk users in large-scale projects, assign bulk permissions, and track activity across projects from one dashboard.
• Multi-factor authentication and encrypted download permissions give greater protection against unauthorized file sharing.
• Inviting participants following document and group setup gives greater control of document permissions.

FAQ