Re: Secure Transport of Data

To pick up from the end of Al's post, is there any reason to send media at
all? Why not use a secure electronic transport? The i supports SSL-based
FTP or SSL-based HTTP. You can also do SSH-based FTP using PASE (IIRC) or a
third party product like Linoma's Transfer Anywhere.

Or as Al mentioned, use a VPN connectoin. Do that and plain FTP is probably
adequate as the tunnel is encrypted even if the protocol is not.

And it's more or less free.

On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 11:15 PM, <macwheel99@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There is probably no way that is convenient, cost effective, and safe.
Is there any hurry for it getting to destination?

If someone intercepts the tape, copies the contents, returns the tape to
the
path it was on, you probably cannot tell from the media that that happened.
You may be able to have some way of sealing the package, so you know if the
seal got broken, then resealed.

Make sure you have a good encryption. Some encryptions are a joke.

Look at what the banks use to service ATMs ... an unarmored ordinary van
with a sign saying "no money carried." Stories abound of computer stuff
stolen from such vehicles, such as laptops stolen out of emergency
vehicles,
when the occupants are attending to public needs.

Stories abound of skimmers in ATMs ... ATM security is a joke, so don't
emulate what the banking industry does.

Stories abound of stuff sent by all sorts of common carriers, where the
data
container went missing. I think that mislabeling the outer package might
be
useful. If the prospective thief thinks what is in the package is some
book, they might be less likely to steal it. But insure it properly ... if
the data goes missing & it has personal identity information, your company
could be sued for $ millions.

If hand carried by an employee cross-country, by car or Amtrak, be sure to
keep it on you when into restaurant or other pit stop. Stories abound of
stuff stolen out of employee autos.

I have used a company truck driver to carry computer media, since driving
that way anyway, until driver left it on dashboard for many hours, or other
mishandling. You get one driver educated, just about time company switches
to a different one.

We have also hand mishandling when adverse weather.

Do not send by air, unless your company personnel are using general air
(private plane), so the tape is not out of your signt the whole way.

TSA has the right to "inspect" anything, and there are stories of TSA
employee(s) stealing from the baggage. I have been thru airport security
with computer stuff they had me dismantle, because it was non-standard,
that
they did not recognize as what it was. Rethreading the tape afterwards was
a four letter word.

If sent by phone, do not use an ISP. Stories abound of ISPs meddling with
data streams to inject their advertising, and to analyse your data, seeking
appropriate spam to deliver to you. Use a direct phone line, where you are
not sharing the line with a potential man-in-middle attack. VPN may be
most
economical here ... be sure you on latest security version protection.

Al Macintyre

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:46:04 -0500, PaulMmn wrote

Kirk--

The only -really- secure way to send the tape is to encrypt the data
on the tape.

Fed Ex used to advertise "when it absolutely, positively has to get
there by tomorrow morning..." Is that enough of a guarantee?

Otherwise, seal it in an envelope, hop in a car, and start driving!
(:

If you can part with it long enough for it to go through the X-ray
machine, you could fly...

If you really want to get fancy, write a program to read the data,
split the even bits onto one tape, the odd bits onto another. Send
each tape via a different route on different days. Combine the bits
at the receiving end to reconstruct the data...

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kirk Goins wrote:

I may need to to have a tape 'securely' transported from the East

Coast

to the West Coast. I'll need to guaranty arrival and that is was not

> tampered with, opened etc. Has anyone does this? How did you do it?

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.