May 15th, 2012Top StoryFrom Saucy Pics to Passwords: How to Share Sensitive Information Over the InternetBy Whitson Gordon
Here, we'll walk through the easiest and most secure ways to share files, passwords, and other data with people you trust. There are countless other methods out there, but these are our favorites. The method you use to share data should depend on what you're sending, how secure you want that material to be, and how willing you are to take proper security methods. Securely Share Passwords and Other Simple InformationIf you're just sending a username, password, or other line of text (like a credit card number), protect your info with a few simple tricks: Easy and Pretty Secure: Break the Message Up Into ChunksSometimes all it takes to increase your security is a little obscurity, and that's what this method is all about. You send the sensitive data over separate channels so that only the recipient is likely to have context for what it all means. Let's say you wanted to share a username and password with someone over the internet. Here's the basic idea:
Even if your recipient doesn't delete the message (which you can't count on), a snoop would have no context for what it applies to. The basic idea could work in any direction, as long as you're separating the context from the information. Is it 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. But it's better than nothing, which is what many of us are doing now. If you want to get even more creative, you could send someone the first half of the password via SMS, the second half via email, and let the recipient know over IM how it's been broken up. That way, a thief would have to have access to both their email, IM account, and their phone. You get the idea. Less Practical, But More Secure: Use LastPass
Securely Send Documents and Other FilesIf you need to send full documents—like paperwork for your job or a saucy photo—you'll need the help of an external service. Here are our favorite ways to securely send files. Easy and Pretty Secure: Share it with DropboxEven if your recipient isn't using the popular file-syncing service Dropbox, you can still use it to securely share files with them. Here's how:
Since Dropbox encrypts everything you upload and download over a secure HTTPS connection, your file transfer should be secure from start to finish. The one notable exception: Dropbox's mobile app doesn't use an encrypted connection, so be careful not to upload the file from your phone over an open Wi-Fi connection, and if your recipient does use Dropbox (and you want to share the file with them through Dropbox's shared folders), make sure they don't use the mobile app to download it. If you want to add a little extra security to this method (since anyone with access to your recipient's email could click the link and get the full file), you could use also employ the "half and half" method from section one: Send half the link to your recipient over email, and the other half over text message. They'll have to type it in manually instead of just clicking on it, but as long as their phone and email are secured with passcodes, this creates another level of security a thief would have to go through to get at your file. Less Practical, But More Secure: Send It In an Encrypted ZIP FileThe most secure way to send a file, though, is to encrypt it with a password. There are a lot of ways to do this, but we like to use our favorite archive utility, 7-Zip. Here's how to do it:
This method is very secure, but it has one downside: this method requires that your recipient have a program that can open encrypted archives. Windows' native ZIP handling does not, so they'll need to download something like 7-Zip, PeaZip, or another good archive utility to open it up. And, if one of you is on a Mac, there are some other good compression apps that will let you password-protect your files, though most cost a bit of money. For the Sexting Crowd: Nothing Is Foolproof; When In Doubt, Give It to Them In Person (or Don't Send It at All)The methods above assume that you trust the person you're sending information to, and that that information isn't saucy enough to tempt them to spread it around. Your boss probably isn't going to start passing out your Social Security number, but a password to your Facebook account or a sexy photo is a lot riskier. Even if you trust the someone now, there's no telling what may happen in the future.
The fact is, if something can be seen, it can be copied, and security extends only so far as you trust the recipient of that private info—whether it's a password or a picture. In the end, for most exchanges of sensitive data, nothing's more secure than the tried and true in-person hand-off. It reduces the number of servers your data is duplicated on or spread across, it decreases the vulnerabilities that a snoop might try to exploit, and it ensures that the person you intended it for is the recipient. If you have to send sensitive information into your office, hand it to them in person if you can. If you don't like a paper copy, encrypt your file on a thumb drive and hand that off in person. If it's something you don't have to send (e.g., things on the saucy end of the spectrum), you'd better have a lot of faith in the person you're sending to—or you're better off not sending it at all. After all, everyone has a camera or scanner these days, and if it's tempting enough, there's nothing to keep your recipient from spreading it around on the internet. Keep your private stuff close at hand and you'll never end up like [insert latest celebrity with a sex tape]. As we said before, these are only a few ways to securely send information over the internet, but there are countless others. If you have a favorite method that we didn't mention, share it with us in the comments. Title image remixed from Mayer George Vladimirovich and mkabakov.  |
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