- Boxcryptor1 started out as an EncFS2 implementation. At the time, EncFS was the only real good solution for file-based encryption. Solutions like TrueCrypt are disk-based, which means for cloud syncing solutions like Dropbox, one file - the entire disk volume - gets synced, and every time a file changes, the entire disk gets synced again.
- Get to know your Boxcryptor Drive After installation, Boxcryptor creates a virtual drive located in “This PC” ➔ “Boxcryptor”. Start Boxcryptor, sign in and you’ll see that Boxcryptor already added all your cloud storage providers automatically. Pro tip: You can also add local folders in your settings.
I own a Synology NAS which i synchronised with Google Drive using the 'Cloud Sync' feature. For security reasons, i used the Synology built-in feature to encrypt the files on the NAS before sending them to the cloud. However now, i can't read them in the cloud, much less use the bidirectionnal sync feature while keeping files encrypted.
July 05, 2019
Synology Cloud Sync Boxcryptor
I have a lot of data spread out across several devices and cloud services and keeping them secure requires different levels of data classification. I use various additional full-device encryption methods, but today I’m outlining more cloud-specific tools for day-to-day file encryption.
Unencrypted data
Synology Webdav Boxcryptor
I don’t like to store anything on my laptop outside of Dropbox, so we’ll start there. I don’t have a lot of unencrypted data and I’ll likely move away from unencrypted at some point. For now it’s just a little more convenient to store photos/videos without encryption and the cost of the data being copied/lost/stolen is low. As a general practice, I only keep data unencrypted if it’s already been shared publicly on the web. The above folders with obfuscated names are encrypted using Boxcryptor, which I’ll get to shortly.
I keep edited photos, shared files (using the built-in Dropbox sharing functionality), and apps using Dropbox unencrypted inside of Dropbox which means that I also have access to all of these files on my iPhone.
Boxcryptor Synology Nas
Perched under my TV alongside my home-networking gear is my Synology NAS. I use it to store everything else that doesn’t fit into my Dropbox folder. It mostly contains my raw, unedited images and a bunch of home videos. It’s important stuff that I want to keep forever, and I mainly choose a NAS over an external hard drive because I can have ongoing backups of all the data to Azure. Using the handy archive data at ingest Azure blob storage lifecycle management function, I can backup all 4TB of my data to the other side of the country for just $4TB/month.
At some point I’d like to move to a more portable model and keep everything on a single drive and handle the Azure backups on my laptop, but for now this works really well.
First layer of encryption
Boxcryptor is a really handy tool for adding a layer of encryption to your cloud provider of choice. For me, Boxcryptor makes it easy to encrypt certain files in Dropbox, while still being able to access them on my iPhone using their app. At this level, I store some important documents, project files, and other photos/media that I’d like to store securely. There isn’t a ton of overhead with Boxcryptor, and their apps make it easy to work cross-platform.
1Password is another go-to-tool for storing data, more specifically passwords and finance info. I use this for certain />
Boxcryptor Synology Drive
Currently doing program management for Amazon Devices in Seattle. I like to document my travels on Instagram and share my thoughts on Twitter.