[23497] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Question of posting National Board Policy Manual online
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Dean)
Mon Feb 3 21:19:00 2003
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 20:18:40 -0600
Reply-To: Robert Dean <rdean71@cs.com>
From: Robert Dean <rdean71@cs.com>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <003001c2cbf0$796dbe20$a959ac80@isbdd.vcu.edu>
Not to put a damper on this, but .htaccess is not a secure solution,
just like Telnet or FTP aren't secure. They transmit the security
controls (username/password) in cleartext, which makes them wholly
unsuitable for real security of information.
If the information is considered wholly confidential, we should either
make it a request-only situation (information on hardcopy), or go all
the way and implement SSL. This will keep the security controls AND the
information safe from people with packet sniffers.
With the concerns about security that have been popping up lately, I
don't think it's appropriate to use a solution that gives, at best, a
false sense of security.
--Robert
derek.cashman@vcu.edu wrote:
>>Post it online in PDF format, as previously done before its removal.
>>However, we can password-protect it as the Order of the Arrow (OA)
>>material is. APO does not have levels of access to materials dealing
>
> with > a given Honor level and those below, but we can use the same
> idea. Use
>
>>something unique to APO that is from the Initiation Ceremony, as the
>
> OA
>
>>uses for each of its types of initiation ceremonies. Ideas? Everyone
>
>
>>with an idea, chime in; register your $.02 so that we have "~$15K" of
>>ideas.
>
>
> Basic password-protection is, in fact, already being used by many
> regions & sections on their websites to protect critical information.
> And I have noticed that an increased number of individual chapters have
> incorporated a "Brothers Only" section into their chapter websites as
> well. The common "dividers" I have seen so far are basically for STAFF
> ONLY pages where a username & password is distributed out to members of
> the section or region staff, as well as chapters having a BROTHERS ONLY
> section that a username/password is distributed out to brothers of the
> chapter.
>
> The most common information to put in this section is probably
> address/phone number info. This type is generally the type of
> information that brothers do not want on the regular web (mainly to keep
> away from stalkers and spammers). Some chapters maintain a listing of
> AIM screen names which they do not want published as well. Region III
> keeps a staff directory in it's Staff Resources section, as well as
> several other documents related to regional business. No, the BOD policy
> manual is not in this section (yet),... we're holding off on this for a
> bit (although it's probably on it's way there eventually,... ;-)
>
> Also, you generally don't need to have individual usernames/passwords
> for everyone that requires access. One single username/password would
> suffice, and you just give that out to everyone that you want to have
> access to your members only section. Although for security reasons, you
> might change the username/password every two years or so (whenever
> there's a change in the board), just as a preventative measure,...
>
> Anyway, if Regions, Sections, & Chapters can do this easily, I see no
> reason why the National Office can't do it, too! The HTML coding for it
> is actually quite simple. It requires merely a small bit of knowledge of
> .htaccess & .htpasswd files, which you can easily glean from doing a
> search for ".htaccess" and ".htpasswd" on www.google.com (man's best
> friend, next to the dog; then again, google is a gift from god, so
> dyslexics won't know the difference! :-) ... Some providers make it even
> easier than that! For example, apo83.org uses yahoo! as a web-hosting
> service, and they have a program in the configuration section that
> configures the password and any directories you want protected
> automatically!
>
>
> _____
>
> Derek J. Cashman (derek.cashman@vcu.edu)
> Technology & Electronic Communications (TEC) Coordinator
> Alpha Phi Omega; Region III
> Graduate Student, Department of Medicinal Chemistry
> MCV Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University
>
> _____
>
> "A Drug is any substance which, when injected into a rat, produces a
> publishable, scientific paper."
