The vast majority of information in the modern world is stored and processed using computers. Digital documents have almost completely replaced paper documents. In these conditions, the question of how to restrict access to information is common and everyday.
Necessary
- - user credentials in Windows or Linux;
- - possibly administrative rights to install software, drivers, kernel modules.
Instructions
Step 1
Restrict access to information located in certain directories and files by setting access rights to them using the operating system. For Windows, log on with the credentials of the user whose data you want to restrict. To do this, restart your computer or use the quick user change functionality.
Step 2
Launch File Explorer. Click on the "Start" button. From the menu, select Run. In the Run Program dialog box, enter explorer. Click OK.
Step 3
In Explorer, find and highlight one of the user's directories. Click on it with the right mouse button. Select Properties from the context menu. In the dialog that appears, switch to the "Access" tab. Uncheck "Share this folder" if it is selected. Check the box next to "Unshare this folder" if it is active. Click the Apply button.
Step 4
For Linux-like systems, run the shell as the user whose data you want to restrict, or as the root user. Switch to a free console by pressing Alt + F1 - Alt + F12, or start a graphical terminal emulator. Log in with the credentials of the selected user, or start a new session using the su command.
Step 5
Change the file and folder permissions. Use the chown command to change the owner and group of the owner of files and folders. Use the chmod command to change the permissions. Use the -R switch to recursively traverse directories when changing rights.
Step 6
Limit access to information by placing it in files and then encrypting them. Collect files with information, access to which should be limited, in some temporary directory. Encrypt the directory or zip it with a password. Use tried and true encryption utilities such as PGP or GPG for encryption. Archiving can be done with such packers as zip or rar. This method is inconvenient. It will be necessary to decrypt the information to work and encrypt it again after making changes.
Step 7
Limit access to information by placing it on virtual encrypted disks, the contents of which are stored in container files. Use the de facto standard, free and open source TrueCrypt cross-platform software to create these discs. A less popular but acceptable solution might be BestCrypt. This approach is one of the most convenient and flexible - container files can be mounted on different machines under different operating systems. Information is encrypted "on the fly" when writing to disk.
Step 8
Place information on encrypted partitions of hard drives to restrict access to it. To create encrypted partitions, you can use the same tools that were described in the third step. The advantage of this approach is encryption of all information on the physical partition (even the file system), the disadvantage is the ability to transport information only on an encrypted storage device.
