Sending Confidential Audio Across The Internet – What To Look For

Annalisa — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:54:20 +0000

When using a transcription service one thing you must check is the security of the file transfer mechanism used by that transcription service. The vast majority of audio we process at The Transcription People is confidential, this means that the audio our clients send to us must be sent to us across the internet securely, this means encrypting the audio from the sender all the way through to our servers.

How do we encrypt audio and what should you look for when hiring a transcription service?

There are a couple of common ways to transfer files across the internet, email and FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Neither of those are secure: email by default travels in the clear across the internet from the sender to the recipient. By “travels across the internet” we mean your email is passed from server to server, called hops, until it reaches its destination mail server. As email is sent in the clear the content could potentially be intercepted and read by others. FTP is also a very common way to move larger files and many smaller transcription services make use of this. FTP is fine for non confidential audio, using FTP again transmits data across the internet in the clear, unencrypted. When using FTP you are usually required to enter a user name and password to connect to the FTP server, that is just the key to open up access to a location on a server to deposit your file, it does not mean that your audio is encrypted. Both email and FTP can be secured; for email by using secure certificates for both the sender and receiver and for FTP to use the SFTP protocol (Secure File Transfer Protocol) which uses an encryption key exchange as the transfer is initiated, both of these are rarely used by the majority of small transcription services around Australia.

Recently there has been a boom in third party online file transfer services like SendThisFile.com which some transcription services have embraced. This allows senders to deposit large files, like audio, with the third party. This system does allow for secure file transfer but neither the sender or the receiver have any control of where the data is stored and who has access to that data.

Whats does The Transcription People do to secure file transfer?

At The Transcription People we use web browser secure file transfer across HTTPS direct on our own servers. HTTPS is a combination of Hypertext Transfer Protocol across SSL (Secure Socket Layers), which basically means that whatever is transmitted through the browser is encrypted. This is the protocol used by banks and credit card companies to secure data exchange between the browser and the server and is indicated by the padlock in the browser and the URL starting with https. Using this protocol the data is encrypted from the sender to the receivers server, across all internet hops.

We own and administer our own webservers, we do not share them with other websites or businesses and we have full access and control over our servers. Audio you securely transfer to us via our innovative and easy to use web application comes directly to us, securely across HTTPS.

New .ds2 Audio Format In Use By Olympus Recorders

Dave from dictate.com.au — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:19:07 +0000

Olympus have long been the market leaders in both tape and more recently digital voice recorders and dictaphones in Australia and I am sure in most parts of the world. Olympus Voice in Australia is run from their head office in Melbourne with an additional office located in Sydney.

In 2009 Olympus Australia have been very agressive with updates to their product range and we have seen a number of recorders discontinued and replaced with newer models. The greatest impact of changes in product line have affected the digital dictaphone range, most commonly used by for single speaker audio and very popular in the medical and legal fields. The product range now comprises the DS-2400 (replaced the DS-2300), DS-3400 (replaced the DS-3300) and the DS-5000 (replaced the very popular DS-4000).

All the Olympus digital dictaphones now by default record in the new DSS Pro (Digital Speech Standard) audio format which creates .ds2 audio files. This is great to see Olympus moving forward with product lines which are advancing with audio technology but this can give smaller transcription companies some issues. DSS Pro is a licenced audio format meaning its audio codec is not openly available restricting transcription of these audio files to companies or individuals with official Olympus transcription module software, generally bundled in an official Olympus transcription kit. Many small transcription businesses rely on free or open source software for transcription, the most common free transcription software is Express Scribe from NCH SwiftSound, ExpressScribe is not able to play .ds2 audio files.

The Transcription People use a mix of transcription software, we regularly use ExpressScribe but that is also complemented with some of our Windows PCs and Macs running Olympus DSS Player Pro 5 transcription software for the times when we receive .ds2 audio files from our clients, a trend which is growing as more clients start to upgrade or replace their digital dictaphones.

If you use an Olympus dictaphone and are looking for an Australian based transcription service, one question you should be asking when you shop around is “can you transcibe .ds2 audio files?”.

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Sending Confidential Audio Across The Internet – What To Look For

New .ds2 Audio Format In Use By Olympus Recorders