Tutorial 2.2: Control Documents

Author: Ryan Ahlstrom-ryahlstrom@gmail.com

Microsoft documents can be somewhat controlled by right clicking on the file that you want to protect and selecting “Properties.”  In the window that appears, there are two checkboxes near the bottom that say “Read-Only” and “Hidden.”  By checking the “Read-Only” box, a file cannot be manipulated and saved to that specific original file.  However this is easily overcome.  The user can simply right click on the document icon and uncheck the “Read-Only” box.  They can also save the file with a different name.  By saving the file under a new name, the attributes discussed in Tutorial 2.1 found in the yellow properties box are then changed and the creator of the document will know that they aren’t dealing with the original document that they created.

By checking the “Hidden” box above you can hide files from the naked eye.  Showing hidden files can come in handy.  For example you may want to hide files from certain individuals at work or just add one more layer of difficulty to penetrating certain sensitive files.  Also, let’s say you’ve tried to delete everything from a floppy disk and the disk properties still indicate 100K of disk space is being used by hidden files.  You can delete these files but you first must be able to view them.  To “view” hidden files, in the “Tools” menu in the folder where you want to see the hidden files, click “Folder Options.” Click the “View” tab and the “Show hidden files and folders” button.  This will allow you to view the icons of all hidden folders and files though their icons will be washed out to denote they are “hidden.”

These “Read Only” and “Hidden” techniques give you one more “layer” of security that might be the layer that the average criminal doesn’t anticipate.  They might get hung up or caught if they are not wary of all of our hardening tactics.