just try stat command
stat yourdirectory this will give you some details like this
stat /etc
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2013-12-11 12:27:52.000000000 +1100
Modify: 2013-03-18 10:11:57.000000000 +1100
Change: 2013-03-18 10:11:57.000000000 +1100
you can change permissions on Linux/Unix using chown
chown root:root -R directory name (-R is to use recursive permissions , this changes will affect your whole directory structure ).
chown root:root direcotryname - will change only the directory , not sub directories.
this will change only the user and group. if you need to change the permissions you need to use
chmod command. (like read,write,execute permissions)
this is a good reference about permissions on Linux
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1252905
Hope this helps.
Tharanga Abeyseela