How To Know If Sensitive Files Are Publicly Shared In Your Organization

Sensitive data exposure doesn’t always come from malicious insiders or sophisticated cyberattacks. In many cases, the culprit is something far more mundane, and just as dangerous: misconfigured file sharing.

Organizations today rely heavily on SaaS platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, and more to enable collaboration. But with ease of use comes ease of error. With just a few clicks, an employee can inadvertently make a file publicly accessible to anyone on the internet, no password, no audit trail, and no notification to IT.

So, how do you know if this has already happened in your environment?

This blog post will walk you through how to identify publicly shared sensitive files across your SaaS stack, the risks involved, and how automation and access governance platforms like DoControl can help you gain visibility and control – before your data walks out the door.

What Does “Publicly Shared” Mean in a SaaS Context?

“Publicly shared” doesn’t always mean a file is indexed by Google or available to the entire internet, although that does happen. More often, it means a file has been configured in one of the following risky ways:

• Anyone with the link: The file can be accessed by any person who has the link, regardless of whether they’re part of your organization. No login required.
• Public on the web: The file is searchable and accessible without any restrictions.
• Shared with external collaborators: Intended for partners or clients, but often left open indefinitely.
• Shared in Slack channels or email chains: Once a link is out, there’s no telling where it might go.

These sharing configurations are especially dangerous because most users don’t understand the implications, and admins don’t always have centralized visibility into who changed what and when. In platforms like Google Drive, it only takes a few clicks to change a file’s access level without any alerting mechanisms in place.

As your organization scales, these link-sharing behaviors become harder to track, monitor, and remediate, leaving your sensitive data exposed to potential breaches, leaks, or compliance violations.

How Do Sensitive Assets Get Shared Publicly?

Sensitive data doesn’t typically get exposed through one major failure, it slips through the cracks in everyday workflows. Here are some common pathways:

1. Cross-Platform Sharing Confusion

Users often share content across platforms like Google Drive, Slack, OneDrive, or Dropbox without realizing that access permissions don’t always carry over – or worse, may default to “Anyone with the link.” 

In many cases, users intentionally select “Anyone with the link” out of convenience rather than malice. They don't want to send their colleague a file, then their colleague requests access, then go back and grant them permission – they use this share setting to avoid delays, especially when trying to quickly enable collaboration. While the intent is to move the project forward ASAP, the result can unintentionally open the door to broad, uncontrolled access.

2. Breakdowns in Business Processes

When standard procedures are bypassed – like using personal email for convenience or sharing files outside of sanctioned channels – oversights can lead to exposure. Again, this is not always malicious – it rarely is. 

Take Jen, an HR manager at a fintech firm. She means no harm when she sends a file containing a performance improvement plan (PIP) for a junior employee to her personal email before leaving the office. She simply wants to catch up on work later from her home office after putting her kids to sleep. But, regardless of her intent, the risk of that sensitive file share remains. This is exactly why context—both in terms of content and user behavior—is so critical.

3. Lack of Content Sensitivity Awareness

Employees often don’t realize what content lies inside a document. A file might look routine, but it actually contains sensitive customer data, financials, or intellectual property (IP). Without automated classification, these risks go unnoticed.

This brings us back to the importance of context. Not every sharing event is inherently risky—but some are more concerning than others. Take our employee, Jen. Yes, she shouldn’t have shared that PIP to her personal email – that was careless. But the situation could have been far worse. 

What if Jen had been sending sensitive company IP and HR hiring information to her personal account just days before leaving the company? That’s a major red flag. With proper context – both around the content of the files and the user’s behavior – a security team would be better equipped to detect and respond to these kinds of risks.

‍5 Signs That Sensitive Data Might Be Publicly Shared

Not all file sharing is malicious, but when sensitive files are exposed to the wrong people, the consequences are serious. Here are several red flags that may indicate your organization has sensitive data publicly shared:

1. Unusual Traffic on Shared Links

If file access logs show spikes in activity (especially from unknown IPs or geographies) you may be dealing with public exposure.

2. External Collaborators Accessing Internal Files

When external emails start showing up in access logs for documents containing internal financials, product roadmaps, or customer data, it's a sign that boundaries have been crossed.

3. Files Shared with “Anyone with the Link”

This is one of the most common and overlooked risk vectors. Employees often use this setting for convenience, unaware that it means no authentication is required to access the file.

4. No Audit Trail or File Ownership Visibility

Publicly shared files often bypass your organization’s logging and monitoring. If you can’t tell who accessed the file, when, or what they did with it, you're flying blind.

5. Sensitive Data Types Are Involved

Files containing PII, PHI, financial data, or proprietary IP should never be publicly accessible, but often are. When these files are shared using unrestricted links, compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 is immediately put at risk.

Public sharing may start as a productivity shortcut – but without controls and oversight, it quickly becomes a liability.  Of course, all these signs are just small ways you can *maybe* sense if a file has been publicly shared or accessed if you’re trying to do the work all on your own.

How to Audit Publicly Shared Files Manually 

Many security teams begin their journey to SaaS security by manually auditing file sharing configurations across SaaS platforms. They soon realize they need more than this due to the time it takes, and the complexity of the answers they’re actually looking for. 

Most major cloud collaboration tools offer admin-level access to review sharing activity, but each comes with its own quirks, blind spots, and operational overhead.

Here’s how you can audit file exposure across common SaaS platforms:

Google Workspace (Google Drive)

• Use the Admin Console > Reports > Drive audit log or set up custom DLP rules.
• Filter for files shared externally or set to “anyone with the link.”
• Export logs and correlate them with user activity for deeper analysis.

Challenge: Identifying sensitive content requires a separate process, often involving downloading or integrating with third-party tools. Not to mention data access governance of knowing who, what, where, when, and why your data is getting accessed.

Microsoft 365 

• Use the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal to track file sharing and generate audit logs.
• Cross-reference sharing configurations with DLP alerts to flag potential exposure.

Challenge: Policies are complex to configure, and logs don’t always reflect real-time changes in file visibility.

Slack

• Files uploaded to public or multi-org Slack channels can become accessible beyond intended recipients, especially in Slack Connect environments.
• Slack’s Enterprise Grid allows exports of shared files and some audit functionality via Slack’s Discovery API or SIEM integration.

Challenge: There’s limited native visibility into file permissions, and links shared in chats often connect back to other apps (likeGoogle Drive), where permissions are inherited.

Limitations of Manual File Audits

Manual auditing might seem like a straightforward path to visibility, but in practice, it’s riddled with challenges that make it inefficient, error-prone, and unsustainable at scale. Here’s why:

1. No Real-Time Detection or Alerting

Manual methods depend on scheduled reports or sporadic reviews. If a sensitive file is publicly shared at 9 AM, your next audit might not catch it until days later until, if ever.

Delayed detection = prolonged exposure.

2. Inconsistent Capabilities Across Platforms

Each SaaS app has its own logic for “sharing” and different reporting features. There’s no unified standard, which means teams must manually normalize data, maintain scripts, and juggle dozens of admin dashboards.

You’re essentially building and maintaining a DIY SIEM across your SaaS stack.

3. Blind Spots for Shared Links in Conversations

Files shared in Slack, email, or chat often inherit the permissions of their original location. If that file was set to “anyone with the link,” and someone pastes it into a public Slack channel, it’s now discoverable outside your org.

The context of sharing is just as important as the file itself – and manual audits can’t account for that. However, a platform that uses context-enriched data and actions can. 

4. Lack of Context in Content and Users (No Sensitivity Context)

You may find a file that’s publicly shared with several people within your organization, but is it a company office party flyer, or a spreadsheet with 500 credit card numbers? Again, context is everything!

Manual audits can’t scan contents at scale or determine risk based on data classification, making prioritization nearly impossible. Without understanding what’s in the file, you can’t assess the impact of exposure.

Understanding content is only half the picture. Equally important is having the context on the user to truly decipher if their actions are risky. For instance, a marketing manager sharing a file with their PR agency is different from an about-to-leave employee sharing their playbooks to their personal email. In both these cases, a share took place - but you need that user context to connect the dots!

Security isn’t just about what is shared — it’s about what is being shared, by whom, and why. Without both content and user context, organizations are essentially blind to the true risk of data exposure.

5. Inefficient Remediation

Even when a risky file is discovered, security teams often have to:

• Manually reach out to the file owner
• Ask them to change permissions
• Follow up to confirm remediation

This not only delays response, wastes money, but it increases dependence on non-security users to resolve critical issues. 

At scale, this becomes a massive drain on team resources and introduces compliance risk.

6. No Continuous Coverage

Manual reviews are snapshots in time. They tell you what was publicly shared yesterday, but give you no insight into what might be shared tomorrow.

You’re always a step behind, chasing historical exposure rather than preventing it from happening again.

Automating File Exposure Detection with DoControl

Monitoring and securing your SaaS environment isn’t a DIY project. It should be done by experts whose sole job is making sure your data is secure. 

Think of your SaaS environment as your home – it has all your valuables stored inside. You wouldn't depend on yourself to install a full-proof, Grade A security system all on your own, would you? Definitely not. You'd hire a locksmith, or have an expert install a security system for you. Chances are, you probably already have a guy for that.

Your SaaS environment deserves the same level of protection.

Manual audits are no match for the scale and complexity of today’s SaaS environments. With hundreds of users, thousands of files, and multiple platforms in play, you simply can’t know, at any given moment, what’s been shared, with whom, and what sensitive content it might contain.

That’s exactly the problem DoControl solves.

DoControl provides automated SaaS data access governance built to eliminate blind spots, accelerate response, and reduce data exposure across your business-critical cloud applications.

Here’s how:

1. Visibility Across Every SaaS File, User, and Action

DoControl gives you real-time visibility into how files are shared across platforms like Google Workspace, Slack, Microsoft 365, and more.

This level of visibility is not possible through native admin consoles alone.

You get a full birds-eye view of everything happening in your SaaS environment – every action taken, every file shared, every employee activity, and much more.

2. Automated Detection of High-Risk Sharing

DoControl identifies sensitive file exposure as it happens, combining file metadata, user behavior, and contextual risk signals. You can get as granular with this as you want. DoControl scans the file for sensitive content, and then alerts Sec teams immediately.

You’ll know instantly when:

• A file containing customer PII is made publicly accessible
• Internal IP is shared outside the org
• Former employees retain access to sensitive content
• Files are shared in bulk to external recipients

…and more! Security teams can customize the controls to suit their needs. 

You can set up custom workflows to prevent any public file shares from happening in the future, and tailor the permissions and engage the end users in a way that makes sense for your organization's policies and communications. 

3. Policy-Driven Remediation and Enforcement

Piggybacking on our last step, the custom workflows available to our customers not only enable their business while keeping their security airtight, but it allows them to remediate automatically at scale.

DoControl doesn’t just detect problems, it enforces your governance strategy automatically. With DoControl’s no-code workflows, you can:

• Remove public or external access to sensitive files in real time
• Restrict sharing based on sensitivity, department, or user risk level (grab the identity of the user doing the share, & make a context-informed decisions)
• Require manager approval for external shares or large-scale downloads
• Revoke file ownership during offboarding at scale

…and more. Less burden on end users, faster incident response, and a stronger security posture all without adding roadblocks to productivity.

‍

‍

{{cta-1}}

You Can’t Protect What You Can’t See

When sensitive files are exposed through public or over-permissive sharing, manual audits will always be too slow, too shallow, and too siloed to stop the risk in time.

DoControl gives you the continuous visibility, automated remediation, and policy orchestration you need to eliminate public file exposure at scale, before it leads to data loss or compliance violations.

SaaS platforms have made collaboration easier, but they've also made it easier than ever for sensitive data to be shared – intentionally or not – with people who should never have access. And once a file is publicly accessible, it's nearly impossible to control where it ends up.

The truth is:

• You can’t reliably manually audit every file across every app
• You can’t manually track who has access, how it was granted, and what the file contains
• And you can’t scale remediation without automation

That’s where DoControl comes in.

We give security teams the tools to see and control exactly what’s been shared, with whom, and why, across your entire SaaS stack. 

Whether you're dealing with public links, over-permissioned collaborators, or sensitive content in the wrong hands, DoControl helps you find it, fix it, and prevent it from happening again.

Want to Learn More?‍

See a demo - click here

Get a FREE Google Workspace Risk Assessment - click here

See our product in action - click here

‍