Whoop whoop - security has been breached

[Onan the Clumsy]

What an idiot I am.

I have a web site for my business and I thought this would be a great place to store my documents and backups from Microsoft Money etc etc.

So, after doing a backup, I FTP the files to the site and of course I just noticed, the entire world can see and download everything I put up there (seemed like a good idea at the time). Admitedly, they're hidden, but if someone snoops around enough, they'll be able to find them.

So,

(1) How do I make them private?

(2) Should I just use Yahoo briefcase to store everything instead? Is that a private medium.

TIA, Onan the Stupid

[Background Noise]

In my simplistic way I would have thought anything stored on the www could be hacked. Perhaps the safest place would be on a CD.

[25F]

If the files are in a directory called say "t14s4otw" then only somebody that knows it's there can see it. This is in effect a password,
and just as secure as the password protecting your FTP login.

You can increase security by using ".htaccess" authentication, if your server is running apache. Run it over "https" to prevent snooping, and it's about as secure as any system connected to the net can be.

Have a look here:
http://www.theriver.com/trwrc/htaccess.html

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Onan the Clumsy,

I am with Background Noise. Use a CD Burner and burn CDs every night. With the latest 52X burners, it takes seconds to burn a CD. Every day make a backup. Rotate the location you put the CDs every night. Example:

Monday put that day's backup in a fire safe at work.
Tuesday put that day's backup in a safe place at home. (If home is in a different location than work.)
Wednesday put that day's backup in a fire safe at work.
Thursday put that day's backup in a safe place at home.
Friday put that day's backup in a safety deposit box at the bank.

This is extreme, but it gives the example of what to do for safety including fire damage at any one location.

Take Care,

Richard

[25F]

If you're going to rely on burning CDs for backup, don't forget to test - regularly - that you can read back files from the CD.

[Front_Seat_Dreamer]

Onan if your site is hosted on a (dare I say it) windows server you will probably have a private folder which is meant to be secure, I store stuff in mine and have tried to hack it from a bwowser but can't. However I am in agreement with the others comments that a writable cd will do the job for you in minutes or create a completely bizarre titled folder on your website or as I do both.

P.S. Thanks for the laugh the other day with your tag it had me in stitches, which took a little explaining in the office and still makes me smile when I see it.

[Onan the Clumsy]

Thanks everyone. I got the files in briefcase, but it's new to me and I don't want to lose 'em. I can burn a CD, but my laptop doesn't have a burner. I also put the files in a directory called 'secret directory' just kidding, it was called 'gve5l39g'.

The problem with the last one though is that If I did that I can get a directory listing if I type in a directory I know. All I need is to be able to get the listing from the root.

I also saw a private dirtectory, but when I tried to get there, it asked me for a username/password and it's using a different one from what I use to FTP.

Briefcase will do if it'll keep them safely.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Onan the Clumsy,

I can guess by your Tag, you do not want to spend any money, but you have to figure out how much your data is worth if it is destroyed (Fire, Virus, etc.) or hacked and broadcast all over the Internet.

First option for your notebook computer. My guess is that it has a network card built in. You could connect the computer to your Business network and transfer the files over your LAN to a computer that has a CD-Burner. Then you could get a hard copy of your data, (that does not require putting it out on the net).

There are three other options for you:

1) USB Hard Drive. It is fast and easy to backup anything you want:





2) USB CD-Burner or DVD Burner. It lets you make hard copies of your data from any computer:







3) USB Flash Drive. They are great since you plug them in any USB port and copy your data, then put it in your pocket. (Up to 2Gb of Solid State Storage):







Take Care,

Richard

[RomeoTangoFoxtrotMike]

The depressing thought is that even a moderately well-secured, albeit publicy visible web server, is likely to be better secured than the average home system plugged into broadband...

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

TCS,

Any chance you could find some smaller images? Ones that don't make the pages get so wide the left-right scrolling is required to read the posts.

What resolution are you running on your monitor? (I am running 1280x1024. I dropped it down to 800x600 and I can still get the whole image in without scrolling from side to side.)

Take Care,

Richard

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

TCS,

I am running a 17" LCD at work, 1280x1024 is the native resolution, so no choice. (I run my 21" CRT at home at 1024x768. Works great for the PPRuNe Forums.)

Take Care,

Richard

[PPRuNe Towers]

TCS - Assuming OSX, have you hit the green button to make the browser window full screen??

Rob