How secure are 'network drives'

osaddict

We currently have a file server which people access via mapped drives. currently this basically has two users - one for virtually everyone and one for a small selection of people.

The small selection of people have every folder accessible, the general bods only have specific ones.

Now, this is fine, and working well, however, a non IT person has just asked me 'how secure is this?'

Now, putting aside accessing the drives from another users desktop, just how secure is theis method? - I presumed it meant someone had to have knowledge of the users we had created on the server, the password for the username, and the folders to map to - i.e. quite a collection of details. Therefore I concluded it was quite secure.

Is this a simpleton take on it?!

Thrax

Unless someone is armed with intimate knowledge of the folder structure and user accounts (in which case you'd be screwed regardless), it's pretty damn secure. You must simply be certain that the group permissions do not allow any user but one of an administrative level to change permissions on the folders in the share.

If your permissions are correct, users will simply be locked out of any task that would somehow violate the hierarchy you've set up.

kryyst

To add to what Thrax said it's as secure as your users passwords are.