Re: Secure file transfer

[00naught <RU7hL355 () cia com>]

Secure transfer ... of the top of my head I would say SCP/SFTP is your 
friend here.

Basically, lacking more details, I would say that the simplest way to do 
this is by setting up a box that only allows  SSH logins. You can tweak 
that as you see fit, as between the firewall rules and the 
"authorized_keys" restrictions you can have quite fine access control. 
With that  plus  the regular *nix file permissions you should be able to 
keep things under control. This would  take care of things at your end.

At the client end, things would be different according to the client OS. 
If the clients can use one of the *nixes, you are set as either scripts 
or SSHFS, via fuse, can work. If the clients are mostly windows, there 
are also several options. For people who are the least computer savvy I 
usually recommend "sftpdrive" which is a network file system for 
windows. Not expensive, and maps your box to a drive letter on the 
client machine.  If someone can copy files to a floppy/network drive 
they can use sftpdrive - http://www.sftpdrive.com/. (Needless to say, I 
am but a happy user of their software.) Other options, for example,  
could be cygwin or putty based.

Yet another, completely different, option would be webDAV. I like this 
for situation where security is needed but it's not a life and death 
thing. Most people would either use a web browser for access or the 
built in windows "client" and if you've read these lists long enough you 
know what that means.

WebDAV offers the advantage (???) of only needing a name/password pair 
for access, while anything SSH would require that you somehow get the 
clients' public keys into the server. More work for you, but more 
secure. IMHO, and all that.

Good luck,
Naught



> > Are there any good solutions for secure file transfer in a corporate 
> > environment.
> >
> >
> > This should also cater for:
> >
> >
> > 1. Secure transferring of large files which cannot be emailed.
> >
> >
> > 2. Allow the tranfer of these files to people on the internet.
> >
> >
> > 3. There should be very little administration of accounts.
> >
> >
> > 4. It should be assumed that the files are of a sensitive nature.
> >
> >
> > What are the best practices for this and the security implications?