Linux basics: how to hide, lock, encrypt and protect your files on Linux

Hiding, locking or even encrypting your files and folders on Linux is very simple, no matter what you want to do, you can follow many different ways. This is a quick guide to how to hide, lock, and protect files in the simplest possible way.

Hide the file

Whether you want to hide any files or folders on the system, you can add a point (.) At the beginning of its name and confirm the rename operation. If your file manager is not configured to display hidden files, the file / folder will disappear from the view. You can use "Ctrl + h" to toggle the hidden file, or open the terminal and type "ls -a".

Of course, it is easy to understand that hiding is not a serious security measure, but only to avoid deleting files such as the wrong prerequisites. Do not expect to hide something that will protect it with other users of the system, and if you want something like that, you should enter the locked part of this guide.

Lock the file

The easiest way to lock someone else to view files is to change their permissions. Just right-click the file, select the "Properties" option, then click the "Permissions" tab, and finally change the access type of other users to "None".

You can even lock your own files. If you want an extra security step, you can also use the command "chmod go-w yourfileame" and then "go + w" to get the written permissions folder.

Protect the file

Ok, the above is good, but if you need to really protect the file or folder, you will need to use a password to lock it. The easiest way is to use the default file archiving tool to create a new archive file, then enable the password option and set the password. Please note that this can not be done in all types of archives, and your best choice is the "zip" file.

Encrypted files

Encryption is the best way to protect your files, so I take this step as the last one of this quick guide. One of the simplest tools for this task is a package called "mcrypt", just type the mcrypt command followed by the file name to work through the terminal. The utility will prompt you to enter the password twice and then generate a new file of type NetCDF.

If you delete the original file, you will use the "mcrypt -d" command to decrypt the encrypted file, as shown below.

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