How to routinely and securely share data?

[hayduke]

I have data that, while not in an of itself sensitive, I would like to share securely with research colleagues. What is the best way to go about this?

There are at least three options that I can think of scp (over ssh), ftp/sftp http/https.

I'm reasonably Unix-savy, but not Apache savy. I'd like access to the data to be password protected. It won't be accessed by a large number of people, but I don't want to create accounts for each person that needs access. What is the simplest and most (reasonably) secure way to do this? If I set up a user account how do you provide the password to someone? Over e-mail?

FYI data sets are frequently greater than 100MB and sometimes ~5-6GB.

Thoughts?

 

[ElectricSheep]

I have data that, while not in an of itself sensitive, I would like to share securely with research colleagues. What is the best way to go about this?

There are at least three options that I can think of scp (over ssh), ftp/sftp http/https.

I'm reasonably Unix-savy, but not Apache savy. I'd like access to the data to be password protected. It won't be accessed by a large number of people, but I don't want to create accounts for each person that needs access. What is the simplest and most (reasonably) secure way to do this? If I set up a user account how do you provide the password to someone? Over e-mail?

FYI data sets are frequently greater than 100MB and sometimes ~5-6GB.

Thoughts?

There are some other considerations:

What kind of network link are you sharing this data via?
Are you just publishing this data, or do you wish to allow the data to be altered by whoever accesses it?
Do you wish to use encryption, or just authentication?

 

[hayduke]

There are some other considerations:

What kind of network link are you sharing this data via?
Are you just publishing this data, or do you wish to allow the data to be altered by whoever accesses it?
Do you wish to use encryption, or just authentication?

Thanks for the input.

The network connection is at a University. I'm not worried about bandwidth nor load etc.

The data can be used however they please once the have access to it. I'm not concerned about people maliciously altering it. We are a relatively small community and I will personally know the people accessing the data.

I think authentication is sufficient. The data isn't sensitive, I just don't want the world to be able to access and hack my machine.

Any more thoughts?

 

[longofest]

I assume this is being shared from a Mac OS X computer (otherwise this is in the wrong forum).

If all you need is authentication, then go to your system Preferences, Sharing, and turn on Personal File Sharing and/or FTP Access. Neither will allow anonymous access by default. Simply place the shared files under /Users/Shared/ and make sure each user has a user account on your computer. Note that OSX Client will only allow approximately 5-10 connections at a time.

 

[hayduke]

I assume this is being shared from a Mac OS X computer (otherwise this is in the wrong forum).

Yes. That is the case. It would be an odd forum to use otherwise...

If all you need is authentication, then go to your system Preferences, Sharing, and turn on Personal File Sharing and/or FTP Access. Neither will allow anonymous access by default. Simply place the shared files under /Users/Shared/ and make sure each user has a user account on your computer. Note that OSX Client will only allow approximately 5-10 connections at a time.

One of my earlier posts stated that I didn't want to create user accounts for each of the possible users (too many, hard to keep track etc.). Obviously I can create a single account that my collaborators all have access too. I hadn't noticed that /Users/Shared/ was possible so that is good to notice. Is it better to keep the data there or should I think it to an http acccessible directory? Does it matter if it is available over scp/ssh or http or ftp?

 

[longofest]

One of my earlier posts stated that I didn't want to create user accounts for each of the possible users (too many, hard to keep track etc.). Obviously I can create a single account that my collaborators all have access too. I hadn't noticed that /Users/Shared/ was possible so that is good to notice. Is it better to keep the data there or should I think it to an http acccessible directory? Does it matter if it is available over scp/ssh or http or ftp?

Sorry for missing the post about the user accounts.

I would suggest NOT placing the data in an HTTP directory (a user's "Sites" folder). Anyone who knew the URL to the file could then access it using HTTP without authentication if you put it in the HTTP directory.

I'd use the Shared directory if I were you, and use FTP or AFP (Personal File Sharing) using that shared user account. To increase the security a bit, go with SFTP, but you'll have to download an SFTP server.

 

[hayduke]

I would suggest NOT placing the data in an HTTP directory (a user's "Sites" folder). Anyone who knew the URL to the file could then access it using HTTP without authentication if you put it in the HTTP directory.

Good point. I hadn't thought about password protection over HTTP and I don't want to!

I'd use the Shared directory if I were you, and use FTP or AFP (Personal File Sharing) using that shared user account. To increase the security a bit, go with SFTP, but you'll have to download an SFTP server.

That makes sense. What about using SCP? I don't have to install anything under OS X, but I don't know how common that is under Windows. Is SFTP better?

Hmm...just noticed that I can already SFTP in to the machine of interest...maybe this is the best way to go. Perhaps, I don't need to install anything.