How do I use LiquidFiles?

Information on how to use the LiquidFiles system to securely send and receive documents with sensitive information.

Overview

LiquidFiles is the system that MSU Denver utilizes to have users submit documents to the university in a secured manner. Documents that contain social security numbers, bank routing information, and other PII. Email is generally not the recommended way to share this information as email does not provide the level of end to end security that LiquidFiles does.

Before you begin...

Staff, faculty, and student employees request a LiquidFiles account be created. That can be done through this link here.

Please note that student employees cannot request their own account. Their supervisor must put in the request for one.

Be aware that this is not a long term storage solution, and documents will be deleted after a set time.

Please also review the F.A.Q. for LiquidFiles.

Instructions

_{Accessing LiquidFIles}

To access LiquidFiles, please go to https://secureshare.msudenver.edu.

You will click on the SSO Login button. Then follow the Single-Sign On log in that you would use for your email.

_{Composing a Message}

 

After logging in to the Liquid Files solution, you will be greeted with a Compose screen. If this does not show up or you have navigated away, you can find your way back by selecting “Secure Messages” > “Compose”.

The following numbers correspond with the functionality depicted in the graphic above:

1. The recipients for the message being sent will be input here, there are also buttons that will allow for “CC” and “BCC” copies to be sent.
2. This will be the subject title and body of your message.
3. This button will allow you to add files as protected attachments. The size of the files will need to be under the max size noted in 10 and file extensions exe, vbs, scr, bat, cmd, com, and cpl are not supported for sending.
4. After completing all required fields, this will send the message.
5. If you have sent any files previously that have not hit their data retention limit and been deleted, you can send them without being required to re-upload.
6. Pool files are files that an administrator can make available if the files are sent repeatedly.
7. This will be the settings for download requirements. Best practices dictate that if the attached file has any sensitive information or information that meets compliance requirements, the “Require authentication to access/download” box be checked. The Access Restriction applies to how restricted you would like the attached file to be. Similar to the authentication requirement, if there is sensitive information or information that meets compliance requirements, the Access Restriction should be “Only Specified Recipients Can Access”.
8. This will be the expiration for the attached file. The attached file will be set for deletion from the system and no longer accessible. Due to space limitations, best practices dictate that this message expiration should be no longer than 5 business days and our department cannot guarantee an attached file not being deleted from the system if it extends past that time.
9. If set, each recipient will receive the input number of downloads before the attached file expires. Once all downloads have been met for all users, the file will no longer be accessible by those users. If Access Restriction is set to “Anyone”, the attached file will no longer be accessible once the download limitation is met.
10. This will send a copy of the message to your inbox.
11. The Private Message option will send the recipients a message letting them know they have a private message in Liquid Files and require them to click a link to read the message rather than the message body being in the e-mail itself. This will require the user to authenticate into the system in order to read the message. You can send these type of messages without any attachments but the Access Restriction can not be set to Anyone and there is also not a download restriction on the message although it will expire. Because this type of message can often by interpreted as appearing to be a phishing message, we highly discourage its use.
12. This displays the limitations for sending your message.

 

Once the message has been sent, if you chose to have a copy of the message sent to you it will appear in your mailbox. When a user (or users) download the request information, a message will be sent to you with confirmation that the file was downloaded and contain the date it was downloaded, location including an IP address and city and state related to that IP address, the filename and the name of the user who downloaded it. This information can also be found by going to “Secure Messages” and “Download Log”.

_{Requesting a File}

To request a file from a user, choose “Request File” at the top of the page. A dialog box (Shown above) will appear that will ask for the recipient of the e-mail in the “to” field, a subject, and a message. You can also choose to have a copy of the request sent to yourself.

Once you are finished, click “Request File” and an e-mail will be sent to the end user with a link for them to access Liquid Files to upload the file(s). After the recipient has uploaded the file(s), an e-mail will be sent to you with their response, information about the uploaded file and a link for you to access and download the file. The file will live on the Liquid Files server for 2 weeks before being deleted from the system.

_FileLinks

A FileLink (as referenced earlier) is the upload of a file into the system that contains an option to provide a download link or exist to be able to quick-add the file to a Secure Message you are sending. While you will receive download notifications for the file being downloaded by the link, it is against best practices to upload a sensitive file to the FileLink and provide the URL to users as it is insecure.

_{External User Procedures}

When a user receives an e-mail, the message (shown above) will document the filename that was sent, size, and a checksum in case they wish to verify that the message was not tampered with during delivery. It also provides them the retention date of the attachment and lastly, a button that will allow them to download the file.

Clicking on the button will direct them to the Liquid Files web application that will ask them to verify their e-mail address. Upon entering their e-mail address, the user will either receive a message asking them to verify a PIN number to prove their identity or a message noting that they do not have permission to download the file if their e-mail address does not match the e-mail address allowed to download the file.

After entering the PIN number provided, they will then be allowed to download the file. Based on the number of specified downloads per user, after they reach the allotted downloads, they will no longer be able to access the page or if they are the last recipients allowed to download the file, the attachment will delete itself.

Result

You can now send and request documents with sensitive information on it.