 |
 |
Actually, it's better to label confidential information with as big a "CONFIDENTIAL" notice as possible. This helps to prevent people inadvertently passing the file on. If you consistently label and sort aside your confidential information to keep it out of most systems, even out of your own hard drive, then you don't need to worry about security for the system generally, and it will be much easier to identify later when confidential information has been exposed. I have access to some student information through my job, and I don't post those files anywhere. As I go along, I notice what's confidential, and decide to either store it apart from other files or to delete it after using it for the task at hand. If I keep it, I put it in a separate area of my computer, instead of with the project file that I got the information in connection with. That way, if I have to copy project documentation for someone, I don't share anything that I couldn't share with the world. And just to be clear, passwords aren't necessarily confidential. I only care about those, if the password would give someone access to something they could mess up (ie. the database name and password for a public facing website run by the library) or to confidential information (for me, in a university, any information about students, but not much else). I have many passwords posted on a Drupal intranet, because they are passwords for tools that don't give access to other systems, so there isn't much someone could do with them. For example, a password to get to a generic library Google account that has viewing permissions to Google Analytics, but not administrator permissions, isn't confidential. I don't post it everywhere, but I don't worry about keeping it secret. -Wilhelmina Randtke On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 10:53 AM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 3:05 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > > Makes sense, thanks! Although leaving account/password list unencrypted > > on a shared drive seems potentially dangerous... > > > Just make sure the file they're stored in is named something like "Meeting > minutes for [insert name of most boring and dreaded committee at your local > institution]." If it makes you feel safer, put the data in the middle of > some _real_ meeting minutes... ;) > > Realistically speaking, unless you really have things locked down tight (in > which case it's hard as heck to collaborate which makes everyone take their > real work to dropbox and google as well as short circuit whatever security > is in place), anyone who has access to your drives has so much access to > sensitive data as well as the capability for whatever mischief that there > are few institutional accounts that would really give them the ability to > do much more than they already can. > > kyle >