1. A method, operative in an Internet-accessible system comprising a front end application for processing requests associated with user-supplied images, a data store for storing user-supplied images, and a filesystem, the method comprising: inhibiting direct access to the user-supplied images by using a secret header in requests to the file system for the user-supplied images, such that any request that does not include the secret header is refused; upon receipt of given request data including the secret header and associated with an end user interface gesture associated with a given image, the given request data including a timestamp and a token: determining whether the timestamp is associated with a time window in which access to the given image is permitted; if the timestamp is associated with the time window, using the token to determine whether the timestamp has been tampered with; if the timestamp is associated with the time window and has not been tampered with, forwarding the request to the front end application.
1. A method, operative in an Internet-accessible system comprising a front end application for processing requests associated with user-supplied images, a data store for storing user-supplied images, and a filesystem, the method comprising: inhibiting direct access to the user-supplied images by using a secret header in requests to the file system for the user-supplied images, such that any request that does not include the secret header is refused; upon receipt of given request data including the secret header and associated with an end user interface gesture associated with a given image, the given request data including a timestamp and a token: determining whether the timestamp is associated with a time window in which access to the given image is permitted; if the timestamp is associated with the time window, using the token to determine whether the timestamp has been tampered with; if the timestamp is associated with the time window and has not been tampered with, forwarding the request to the front end application. 2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein direct access is inhibiting by requiring the given request data to include a secret.