On Sun, 5 Nov 2017 15:19:44 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'When we wrote an article about file sharing utilities such as Magic Womhole & transfer.sh most of the users asked is it secure? and where the files are stored.'
I had this idea (never tested) that BitTorrent could be used as a point-to-point private file transfer protocol. * Put the file(s) you want to share into some suitable directory. * Create a .torrent file for the contents of that directory. * Start seeding. * Send the .torrent file to the intended recipient(s). * They start leeching off you. * Once they have each received a complete copy, you can stop seeding. The final step can take as long as needed, depending on the amount of data being transferred, and on the speed of your connection--minutes, hours, days, whatever. The data goes straight from your machine to theirs, without being stored on any intermediate server. If there is any break in the connection, the transfer will resume from where it left off once service is restored. Note that you do not publish your .torrent file anywhere--only selected people get a copy. If this informal level of “security” is not adequate, you can always encrypt the files, and only share the keys with your intended recipients via some suitably secure channel. One issue that I can think of is that the trackers you specify in the torrent may penalize your recipients if they cut off after having received their copy, without further seeding. This may or may not be a problem. Maybe DHT avoids this issue...