Anchor by Process

What is Anchor By Process and How does Anchor by Process work?

Anchor-by-process (AxP) is a set of features Anchor will offer our customers which gives the ability to control and protect files created by specific applications and processes. Our customers will use these new capabilities to bring Anchor’s value proposition to non-office workflows that handle valuable and sensitive data.

The anchor by Process feature is designed to automate the protection of files created and handled by applications (or processes) that you select. Administrators will have the ability to select which processes or groups of processes will automatically create Anchored files for the specific user role. Administrators can also determine which file types created by these processes are protected or ignored.

Step 1: Select Settings>User roles>Anchor by Process>Collections.

Step 2: To add a new process or collection of processes, select Add New.

Note: You need to disable the application from the Authorized application before you add the application as an Anchor by process application if the application is present in the Authorized application.

Step 3: Configure the collection as desired and select Add New Process. 

Enforce Anchor outside of protected folders: When this option is selected, anything created by the processes in your collection will automatically be Anchored even if it is located in a non-protected folder. The User can save/save-as/export a file to any folder (except ignored folders) and the resultant file will be Anchored. Anchored files can only be opened from a Protected folder. If a user saves a file to a non-protected folder, then the user needs to move the file to a protected folder to access it. When this option is not selected, only files created inside of protected folders will automatically be Anchored. Users will have the ability to save Anchored data in plaintext format when this is not selected.

Process selection type:

By Name: Anything created by the processes that have been specifically named will be automatically Anchored. This is recommended when working with a small number of processes.

By Folder: Anything created by a process located in the folder path you have specified will automatically be Anchored. This is recommended when working with a large number of processes or if the processes are subject to change.

Process Path(s): You can add the full path to the process executable, for example, c:\program files\acad\acad.exe. Anchor also supports wildcards. For instance, if you wanted to add a process that is in many individual users' Desktop folders, you can use C:\Users\%username%\Desktop/example.exe. Currently, Anchor only supports the %username% wildcard.

How should Anchor handle data saved by these extensions:

Protect: will Anchor only the files created, saved, or exported by these processes which end in the file extensions that are specified in the bottom most blank.

Ignore: will Anchor all files created, saved, or exported by these processes except for the files ending in the specified file extensions. The extensions specified will be ignored.

Note: If Ignored extensions are present in the Authorized extension (more information), Anchor will anchor the ignored extensions in a protected folder.

Add extensions:

Type in the Extensions that you wish to protect or ignore, based on your Mode of choice. When entering extensions into this list, it is important to note that you do not include the “.” with extension names (for example .txt).

• Adding in multiple extensions should follow this format
  • txt, docx, rtf, xlsx

If you would like to add files that do not have extensions, you can simply add “.” (period) in place of an extension such as in this format

txt, docx,., xlsx

Note: User will see a notification that informs user that all files will be anchored by Anchor by process. It will be displayed when Anchor by process is running.