How to Send or Receive Files Securely with LiquidFiles

Overview

Admin IT offers the LiquidFiles service as a way to send documents securely as opposed to email attachments. Documents containing sensitive data, also known as Personally Identifiable Information or PII data, should always be sent securely and not as email attachments. The UC Davis Campus IT Security department has identified varying levels of PII data classification. Read their PII classifications here.

Any documents containing any of the following information that needs to be transmitted must be done via secure transmissions such as through LiquidFiles. Documents containing PII data cannot be attached to an email:

Sending Files via the Web Interface

Prerequisites

• Your account must be provisioned to access the LiquidFiles service.

Steps

1. Go to https://securesend.ucdavis.edu
    
2. Login with your UC Davis email address and passphrase.
    
3. At this screen, configure your options, attach files and click send. See the options overview below for more information on each option.
   
   
    
   1. Select recipients in the same way as a web-based email system, please select To, CC and BCC email addresses to your recipients.
       
   2. Type the Subject to your recipients.
       
   3. Type the Message to your recipients.
       
   4. Select whether or not Authentication is Required to access the message for your recipients. We recommend leaving it at Authentication Required.
       
   5. Select Access Restriction for your recipients. We recommend leaving it at Recipients Only. See the guide for more info on the permission settings.
       
   6. Select date when the message expires. After this day, the attached files will be deleted.
       
   7. If set, each recipient can only download each file this number of times. If the download permission is set to "Anyone", each download by anyone is counted towards the limit.
       
   8. Send a copy to your own email address (for storage in your sent folder).
       
   9. A Private Message is a message where the Message is not included in the email sent to the recipients. When sending a Private Message:
       
      1. The recipients will get a generic email telling them to click on the link to view the message.
          
      2. You will get a read receipt when the recipient has viewed the message as well as when any attachment has been downloaded.
          
      3. You can send a Private Message without any attachments.
          
      4. It is not possible to send a Private Message with the permission that Anyone can download — in order to send a Private Message, authentication is required.
          
   10. Add Files - you can add files up to the max size displayed in the limitations section k).
        
   11. Limitations — Message Size, Quota and File Extension Limitations.
        
   12. When you're ready, please hit Send. If uploads are taking a long time, you can check the checkbox to "send when uploads are done".
        

Sending Files via the Outlook Plugin

Prerequisites

• Your account must be provisioned to access the LiquidFiles service.
• The LiquidFiles Outlook Plugin must be installed on your computer. Install the LiquidFiles Outlook Plugin via the UCD Self Service Application if you don't have it.
• Sign into the LiquidFiles Outlook Plugin. Contact adminithelp@ucdavis.edu for assistance.

Steps

1. In Outlook, open a new email window or reply window.
   
   
    
2. In the LiquidFiles Outlook plugin drop-down menu, click Secure Attach. This will cause any file attached to the email to be sent using LiquidFiles.
    
3. Browse to the file you want to attach. Repeat steps 1-2 for each file you want to send.
    
4. In the LiquidFiles Transfer Panel, specify your attachment settings.
   
   
    
   • Specify who can access the attachments. It is recommended to leave this setting at Only specified recipients.
     
     
   • The date when the attachments will expire and no longer be accessible.
   • The number of times in which the attachments can be downloaded.
      
5. Compose your email and send. Recipients will receive an email like below. They can follow the link to the LiquidFiles website in order to validate their email address and then access the files that were sent. You will receive an email notification once the recipient has downloaded the attachments.

    

Request Files

File Requests provides an easy way for you to request files from someone. The system will make it very easy so that there is no need to provide further explanation, or walk someone through the process over the phone.

1. Go to https://securesend.ucdavis.edu
    
2. Login with your UC Davis email address and passphrase.
    
3. Click File Requests.
    
4. Click New File Request.
    
5. Complete the To, Subject, Message, and Expiration fields.
   
   
    
6. Click Request File. When you click on the Request File button, an email will be delivered to the recipients with a unique File Request link. The email will look something like this:
   
   
   
   When the user clicks on the File Request, they will be taken to a page that will look something like this:
   
   
    

   Where they can send the Requested Files back to the requester.

   A couple of things to note:

   • The Link is one time use only and will expire when the files have been delivered.
   • The user that received the link does not need to register or do anything other than click on the link in the email. Since they received the email with the link, we know that the email address is valid.

User Guide

Read the LiquidFiles user guide.