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Subject Author Date
Secure Office Files on Servers GarrettD78 12-08-2005
Posted by =?Utf-8?B?R2FycmV0dEQ3OA==?= on December 8, 2005, 9:58 pm
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My boss has requested that a number of spreadsheets that reside on a server
be locked down a little better than they are right now. Currently they are in
a file folder with security where he is the only one with write and modify
access and then there are others with read-only access. The only problem we
have found is that if those read only users open one of the spreadsheets on
their computer then they have the ability to save a local copy to their
computer. I need to stop that ability. Does anyone have any ideas on how to
stop this?

Posted by Shenan Stanley on December 8, 2005, 10:37 pm
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GarrettD78 wrote:
> My boss has requested that a number of spreadsheets that reside on
> a server be locked down a little better than they are right now.
> Currently they are in a file folder with security where he is the
> only one with write and modify access and then there are others
> with read-only access. The only problem we have found is that if
> those read only users open one of the spreadsheets on their
> computer then they have the ability to save a local copy to their
> computer. I need to stop that ability. Does anyone have any ideas
> on how to stop this?

Take away their rights.

If I can see it on my computer screen and I have pretty good control of my
system - I can get all of the data out of that document in one form or
another.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



Posted by Karl Levinson, mvp on December 8, 2005, 10:42 pm
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Sorry, there is no simple way to prevent this, whether you are using
Windows, MS Office, Linux or any other software. If you can read something,
you can copy it.

The closest thing that might permit something like this is DRM, Digital
Rights Management. Microsoft has a solution to do this that plugs into
Office you might look into, but I'm not sure how cheap or simple that will
or won't be.


> My boss has requested that a number of spreadsheets that reside on a
server
> be locked down a little better than they are right now. Currently they are
in
> a file folder with security where he is the only one with write and modify
> access and then there are others with read-only access. The only problem
we
> have found is that if those read only users open one of the spreadsheets
on
> their computer then they have the ability to save a local copy to their
> computer. I need to stop that ability. Does anyone have any ideas on how
to
> stop this?



Posted by Amjad Zogby on December 9, 2005, 4:58 am
If you were  Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
GarrettD78 wrote:
> My boss has requested that a number of spreadsheets that reside on a server
> be locked down a little better than they are right now. Currently they are in
> a file folder with security where he is the only one with write and modify
> access and then there are others with read-only access. The only problem we
> have found is that if those read only users open one of the spreadsheets on
> their computer then they have the ability to save a local copy to their
> computer. I need to stop that ability. Does anyone have any ideas on how to
> stop this


I agree with most that has been said. Currently the only way to do this
is implement Windows Rights Management, this only makes the problem of
taking information harder, not impossible.

I think the person who invents a scheme where information stealing gets
impossible will make a LOT of money.
Some ideas:

1. Disable printscreen button using group policy
2. Purchase photo-proof monitors, where a black/white image is displayed
when the screen is photographed, they don't exist (yet) :)
3. Implement RMS
4. Implement corporate policy where users are informed that if stealing
corporate data will send them to court, send them to jail and make them
the shame of their family their community and their country. This really
works, people get scared.

The rest goes without saying: hire people you trust, implement
continuous staff training, continuous memos stating the corporate
security policy, implement auditing etc etc

Security is a tough business, and some challenges are not all possible
to solve yet.

I hope this helps.

Rgds


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