30 ms·

"Ask me if you're responsible for keeping customer information secure ... that's its own can of worms and one that's I've worked on myself." I'm one guy, build

"Ask me if you're responsible for keeping customer information secure ... that's its own can of worms and one that's I've worked on myself." I'm one guy, building a web app up from nothing. So yeah, I'm responsible. :-/ My initial approach is to never have a CC number touch my server, and to absolutely limit the amount of information I need from users. Nevertheless, I do want my users' data to be as private as they make it, and I don't want to find myself hosting inappropriate stuff from breakins or "users of convenience."

hga 17y ago
You've got the right ideas. (And I've been there WRT to the "users of convenience", not fun but one of the less harmful attacks ... unless they use you to spam.) There's the usual set of things to do with your less sensitive user information: salt and hash passwords appropriately, make your password reset system sane (non-obvious security questions if you go that route), and then as a first step I'd just harden the data on-line. Perhaps encrypt the disk copies so that simply grabbing files won't be sufficient, raise the bar sorts of things. Simson's book very quickly goes into policies: risk assessments, trade-offs, all that. Get minimally organized there and you can then do something like this: What's the threat level? What's the cost of compromise? How much effort should I put into this? Then what you should do will be more obvious. Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to add, in relation to Travis and my suggestions about recovery: have some minimal automated intrusion/modification checks, so you'll have a chance of knowing your system has been compromised.
- nfnaaron 17y ago
  Thanks lots. Encouraging to know, based on responses, that I'm thinking in some of the right directions. ocean large, boat small
  - hga 17y ago
    You're very welcome. A lot of this is just common sense and thinking things through ... you've already made the only step that really matters, which is taking the issue seriously and proactively. Good luck, and if you have any specific questions in the future I'm always game; my email is in my HN profile.

hga 17y ago

You've got the right ideas. (And I've been there WRT to the "users of convenience", not fun but one of the less harmful attacks ... unless they use you to spam.) There's the usual set of things to do with your less sensitive user information: salt and hash passwords appropriately, make your password reset system sane (non-obvious security questions if you go that route), and then as a first step I'd just harden the data on-line. Perhaps encrypt the disk copies so that simply grabbing files won't be sufficient, raise the bar sorts of things. Simson's book very quickly goes into policies: risk assessments, trade-offs, all that. Get minimally organized there and you can then do something like this: What's the threat level? What's the cost of compromise? How much effort should I put into this? Then what you should do will be more obvious. Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to add, in relation to Travis and my suggestions about recovery: have some minimal automated intrusion/modification checks, so you'll have a chance of knowing your system has been compromised.

nfnaaron 17y ago
Thanks lots. Encouraging to know, based on responses, that I'm thinking in some of the right directions. ocean large, boat small
- hga 17y ago
  You're very welcome. A lot of this is just common sense and thinking things through ... you've already made the only step that really matters, which is taking the issue seriously and proactively. Good luck, and if you have any specific questions in the future I'm always game; my email is in my HN profile.