Ping64 Integrated Office Security Platform: File Transfer Control and Audit Tracing Solution

I. An Audit Gap Exposed by a Data Leak Investigation

A security team at an Internet company once went through a typical data leak investigation. A file containing a core business plan appeared in the hands of a competitor, and the security team immediately launched a tracing process. They first retrieved the outbound records from the DLP system and found that the file had last been approved for outbound transfer two weeks earlier, with the recipient being a partner organization. The approval process was complete and appeared to have no issues. They then retrieved endpoint operation logs and found that the file had been copied and renamed multiple times locally, but the logs only recorded operation times and could not confirm who the operator was. Next, they retrieved email gateway logs and found no abnormal outbound records. Finally, they retrieved VPN logs and found that someone had logged into the intranet through a personal device in the early morning, but could not confirm whether that device had ever accessed the file.

The investigation lasted two weeks and ultimately came to nothing because there was no complete evidence chain. The security team could confirm that “the file was leaked,” but could not answer “who took the file out, at what time, and through what method.”

This case reveals the common dilemma faced by enterprises in audit tracing: audit capabilities are scattered across different systems, each system can only see a fragment of the event, and what is truly needed is a complete chain from file creation to final outbound transfer.

What the Ping64 integrated office security platform responds to is precisely this core problem—not adding more independent audit tools, but integrating internet behavior monitoring, file transfer auditing, screen recording, screenshot records, file outbound control, and other capabilities onto a unified platform, forming a complete governance closed loop from behavior recording to file tracing, and from real-time control to post-event tracing.

II. Full Lifecycle File Supervision

The prerequisite for audit tracing is “visibility.” If an enterprise does not even know how files circulate within the enterprise, tracing is impossible.

Ping64’s supervision of the full document lifecycle covers every stage of a file, from creation, editing, storage, circulation, and outbound transfer to archiving and destruction.

• At the creation stage, the system automatically identifies the file’s creator, creation time, file type, and initial sensitivity level. If the file is created from a controlled application (such as Office, CAD, or IDE), the content identification engine starts simultaneously, determines the sensitivity of the file content, and provides a basis for subsequent control policies.
• At the editing stage, the system records every modification operation to the file, including the modifier, modification time, and changes in the file fingerprint before and after modification. For encrypted files, editing operations are completed within authorized processes, and the system synchronously updates encryption keys and access permissions.
• At the storage stage, the system identifies the file’s storage location—local disk, shared directory, cloud drive, or removable storage device—and automatically applies differentiated control policies based on the storage location. When a file is copied to an unauthorized location, the system alerts and records in real time.
• At the circulation stage, the system tracks every transfer of the file within the enterprise, including circulation paths through email, instant messaging, shared directories, USB drives, and other methods. Each hop in the circulation records the initiator, recipient, timestamp, and file status.
• At the outbound stage, the system strictly controls file outbound behavior, including outbound channel approval, content compliance inspection, and recipient identity verification. Outbound files automatically embed tracing identifiers to ensure that files remain traceable even outside the enterprise.
• At the archiving and destruction stage, the system records the file’s archiving location and destruction time, ensuring that sensitive data is compliantly disposed of at the end of its lifecycle.

Through continuous recording across these six stages, Ping64 establishes a complete circulation archive for every controlled file. After a security incident occurs, administrators can enter a file name or file fingerprint to quickly reconstruct the file’s complete circulation trajectory—which endpoint it was created from, whose edits it went through, which channels it circulated through, and finally at what time and through what method it left the enterprise.

III. Behavior Auditing

File circulation records answer the question of “where the file went,” but to truly reconstruct the full picture of an incident, enterprises also need to answer “what people were doing.”

Ping64’s behavior auditing capability covers multiple dimensions of endpoint operation behavior. Internet behavior monitoring records the types of websites accessed by endpoints, access times, dwell duration, and upload/download behavior, identifying high-risk website access unrelated to business and abnormal data transmission. The screen recording function automatically starts when preset policies are triggered, recording the entire process of sensitive operations and providing intuitive visual evidence for post-event investigation. Screenshot records automatically retain screenshot copies when employees perform screenshot operations, preventing bypassing file outbound control through screenshots. File operation auditing records operations such as file creation, opening, editing, copying, renaming, deletion, and printing, forming a complete operation log. Peripheral device usage auditing records the connection and usage of USB storage devices, printers, Bluetooth devices, and other peripherals.

These behavior audit logs and file circulation records are stored in association within the Ping64 unified audit center, forming a three-in-one audit view of “person—behavior—file.” When administrators investigate the circulation trajectory of a file, they can not only see which endpoints the file passed through, but also retrieve the operation records and screen recordings of relevant personnel at the corresponding time points to verify the compliance of operational behavior.

IV. File Outbound Control

Audit tracing solves the problem of “knowing after the fact what happened,” but enterprises more urgently need to control file outbound behavior before and during the event. Ping64 embeds file outbound control into every common transmission channel, achieving fine-grained “channel-level” control.

1.  Email outbound control performs content inspection and approval control on attachments sent through email. Sensitive files require an approval process before they can be sent, and after approval, watermarks are automatically added and outbound logs are recorded. For encrypted files, the system can automatically generate controlled outbound versions, limiting the recipient’s number of openings and validity period.

2. Instant messaging control intercepts and audits files sent through instant messaging tools such as WeCom, DingTalk, and Feishu. The system identifies file types and sensitivity levels, blocks or triggers approval for sensitive files, and records the sender, recipient, file information, and timestamp.

3. Cloud drive synchronization control differentiates control over synchronization behavior between enterprise cloud drives and personal cloud drives. File synchronization on enterprise cloud drives undergoes approval and encryption processing, while synchronization behavior on personal cloud drives is blocked and alerted.

4. USB and removable storage control performs admission control and operation auditing on external storage devices. Unregistered USB devices cannot connect, registered USB devices have file write permissions restricted according to policies, and all file copy operations are recorded.

5. Browser upload control intercepts and audits file uploads to external websites through browsers. The system identifies the category of the upload target website and the file sensitivity level, blocking high-risk upload behavior in real time.

6. Printing and screenshot control performs approval and content auditing on printing operations, automatically adding tracing watermarks to printed files; records and alerts screenshot operations to prevent sensitive information leakage through screenshots.

7. Network outbound channel control identifies and controls network outbound channels such as FTP, cloud drive clients, remote desktop, and proxy tunnels, ensuring there are no uncontrolled outbound paths.

The control policies for these seven types of channels are centrally configured in the Ping64 unified policy center. Enterprises can set differentiated control rules for different channels based on data classification and grading requirements. One configuration takes effect across the entire network, avoiding policy conflicts and coverage blind spots across multiple systems.

V. Outbound File Tracing

Once a file leaves the enterprise environment, traditional control measures basically become ineffective. Through outbound file tracing technology, Ping64 keeps files traceable even outside the enterprise.

Digital watermarks automatically embed invisible tracing identifiers when files are sent out, including information such as the sender, approver, recipient, and outbound time. Even if the file is photographed or spread through screenshots, the watermark information can still be extracted for tracing and accountability.

File fingerprint tracing generates a unique fingerprint for each outbound file. Even if the file is renamed or modified, the fingerprint information can still help identify the file’s source.

Controlled outbound format packages sensitive files into a controlled format. The recipient needs to open it in a specified environment, and upon opening, it automatically connects to the Ping64 verification server for identity verification and permission checks. The file cannot be forwarded, copied, or saved as another format.

Validity period and opening count limits set a validity period and maximum number of openings for outbound files. After the limit is exceeded, the file automatically becomes invalid, ensuring controllability of the file outside the enterprise.

Full-process outbound logging records complete information for each outbound operation, including the sender, approver, recipient, file information, outbound channel, timestamp, and tracing identifier. After a leak incident occurs, administrators can quickly locate the source of the leak through the tracing identifier.

VI. Tracing Advantages of the Integrated Platform

Integrating internet behavior monitoring, file transfer auditing, screen recording, screenshot records, file outbound control, and outbound file tracing onto a unified platform provides governance value at three levels.

• First, completeness of the evidence chain. In a multi-system architecture, each system records only a fragment of the event, and administrators need to manually piece together logs from different systems, which is not only inefficient but also prone to missing key information. The Ping64 unified audit center stores file circulation records, personnel operation logs, screen recordings, screenshot records, and outbound approval records in association on the same data foundation, forming a complete and coherent evidence chain. Administrators can enter a file fingerprint or user account to simultaneously retrieve all relevant records for that file or person, without switching between multiple systems.
• Second, linkage of control. When the DLP module identifies that a sensitive file is being sent out, the system can automatically trigger the file outbound control module to block the current operation, simultaneously start screen recording to capture the on-site画面, and notify administrators for manual review. When the internet behavior monitoring module discovers that an endpoint frequently accesses high-risk websites, it can link with the file transfer auditing module to conduct in-depth analysis of that endpoint’s file outbound behavior. This cross-module automated linkage compresses the time window from “discovering risk” to “controlling risk” to near-synchronous levels.
• Third, efficiency of tracing. Traditional audit tracing often takes days or even weeks because security teams need to search separately in multiple systems and manually compare. The Ping64 unified audit center supports multi-dimensional combined searches by personnel, time, file type, operation type, outbound channel, and other dimensions, and supports one-click export of search results as audit reports. After a leak incident occurs, administrators can complete the entire process from incident discovery to responsibility identification within hours.

Conclusion

Enterprise data security development is moving from “point protection” to “systematic governance.” In the field of audit tracing, this trend is particularly evident: what enterprises need is not more audit tools, but a unified platform that can integrate file circulation records, personnel operation logs, screen recordings, outbound control, and tracing identifiers.

The integrated audit tracing capability provided by the Ping64 integrated office security platform is essentially an upgrade in governance logic—making every file operation recorded, every outbound channel controlled, every outbound file carry traceable clues, and every security investigation obtain a complete evidence chain. In an era where data has become a core enterprise asset, this full-link, integrated, and traceable audit tracing mechanism may be the most pragmatic cornerstone of enterprise data security governance.