The convenience of storing things on the cloud can definitely make life easier, but if you're storing sensitive files, it could be a total disaster if anyone hacked your account. Some encryption services can be expensive, but if you just need it for personal use, there are some really great ones that don't cost anything. Here are three programs that let you encrypt your cloud storage for free.
BoxCryptor
BoxCryptor works with any cloud service and is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and EncFS-Linux. It lets you encrypt individual files instead of whole folders or drives and encrypts everything locally without sending it to any third parties.
You can sign up for a free personal account, which allows you to encrypt one drive, or if you want multiple drives, you can pay the $40 for the unlimited personal account. Even with the free one, though, you can still sync it with as many devices as you want and there's no limit to the storage space.
DataLocker
DataLocker is a program available for Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. It lets you store your files locally and on the cloud and it's free and unlimited. Like BoxCryptor, it lets you sync your data across all your devices.
On your computer, you would simply drag and drop the file you want encrypted to the DataLocker application window to encrypt it with a private passphrase. That encrypted file can then be stored anywhere on your local file system or in your Dropbox folder. In order to decrypt the file on another device, that device would also need the DataLocker app. Pretty easy, right?
Cloudfogger
Cloudfogger is compatible with Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and emails, and it works on Windows, Mac (beta), and Android, with iOS support "coming soon."
You can add email addresses to an approved users list to make it easy to share files without giving anyone your password. Cloudfogger also has a Microsoft AddIn that lets you encrypt e-mail attachments on Outlook.
What Programs Do You Use?
Do you encrypt the data you store in the cloud? Know of any great free encryption programs we missed? Tell us what you use in the comments.
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1 Comment
Great article! With all that cloud enthusiasm, people tend to forget which risks are out there for their confidential files.
Being a software startup located in Bavaria (Germany), we are confronted daily with those security concerns. So we thought:
Why can't those sensitive files just stay on your home computer or company server, and we enable really secure mobile access to them?
So we invented FileSpirit (http://www.file-spirit.com), a nice way to make mobile file access secure and still benefit from the cloud:
With FileSpirit, all your sensitive files remain on your home computer or company server - they are not stored on the cloud at all! Our Apps for iPad and iPhone allow mobile access to those files, by simply transferring the files highly encrypted - and only in the moment, you really need them.
This is an interesting alternative to storing your files on the cloud, which still offers the cloud's advantages of anywhere and anytime access to your important files.
So let's keep up the awareness, what we do with our data, and where we store it!
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