
If you ever want to access your unencrypted data from another place - you can’t. If you encrypt the data yourself, only encrypted data is available to you via a web interface. Dropbox, as just one example, allows you to log in to your account from any machine and access the files stored in your account via the web. Unencrypted files are accessible via your service provider’s web interface. There’s one good reason not to encrypt your data yourself: web access. The hidden cost of doing your own encryption If you encrypt your data before it’s uploaded to any online storage provider, you, and only you, control access to it. The solution is simple: encrypt the data yourself. Provider-supplied encryption is nice, but it doesn’t protect us as well as we’d like.

In addition, should your account be hacked, the data in your account would be available to the hacker in its unencrypted form, just as it’s available to you. The service providers also have the ability to turn your unencrypted data over to the authorities should that ever be required of them.

The problem is that since they encrypted it, they can decrypt it.Īnd while the folks at major online storage providers are professionals (with no interest in snooping around in your data), there have been rare instances of the so-called “rogue employee” poking around.

Many online cloud storage providers do encrypt your data. There are also concerns that your storage provider could be required to hand over your files to law enforcement agencies under certain circumstances.Ĭryptomator is a free encryption solution that addresses them.

I regularly hear concerns about using cloud storage - the biggest being that online files are at higher risk of compromise should your account or the storage be hacked.
