Advice worth sharing. Love Dropbox. And Hazel.

[via kung fu grippe on 3/11/11]

Securer file sharing with Dropbox « practically efficient

  • Zip your files
  • Put the zip file in your Dropbox ‘Public’ folder
  • Email the file link, not the file

Great advice on sending sensitive stuff via Dropbox >. And pretty close to what I do. With this handful of paranoid additions >involving chaos and automation:

Parent Folder. in your “~/Dropbox/Public” folder, create a new folder >with a sensible name like, “seekritstuff”

James Bond Naming. Keep a sane name for the uncompressed source doc you’re >sending (say, “2010_income.txt”), but rename the zipped version of that >file with a random name, e.g., something like, “I8-H~*gY{4%u.zip”

TIP: 1password can generate >a “password”-style string that makes a swell file name

Maybe an unnecessary step. But it does makes the file name way harder to just >guess

Hazel help. Most Important. Create a Hazel rule for “~/Dropbox/Public/seekritstuff” that >automatically moves any file it contains to a local/non-Dropbox folder on your >Mac n days or hours after “Date Added”. Mine’s set to 36 hours, but your >setting can be whatever suits you and your recipients

Two-steppin’. Yes, send your recipient the link to that zipped file (NOT >the actual file)–but do so in a separate and obscure-looking email that makes >no reference to either previous emails or the link’s contents.

Viz.

SUBJECT: thing for you
B–
here’s that thing
http://i-0.us/e4wQcw
call or text me with questions

/m

Even better still? Send that link to a different email address for that >person, or TEXT them the URL

In general? Just never hurts to mix it up. All of it.

It’s a start.

Like anything that touches an open network–and most especially anything that touches email–it’s a solution that’s far from perfect. But, to my mind, it feels a little safer than crap like sending plaintext via email.

Seriously. My mind is boggled by how many people throw sensitive stuff around in email to complete strangers–the equivalent of writing a password on a postcard. Then pinning it to the corkboard in the laundromat. Insane.