Services such as DropBox and OneDrive offer encryption when transferring information from your computer to their servers. This means that if the transferred data is compromised the thief would not be able to make anything out of it.
However, if there is sensitive information stored in these cloud services and a hacker managed to steal account credentials (assuming 2-factor authentication is not enabled) then the information stored is jeopardized. In this post I will teach you how to use a third-party product, Encrypto, to store files in any cloud-based service you use for sharing.
Encrypto is a brilliant (and free) utility available for both Macs and Windows. This allows for the AES-256 encrypted files to be easily opened regardless of what computer your recipient is using.
Head to the Encrypto’s website and download the client. Open it and you will be greeted with a very easy to use interface:
Encrypto Interface on the Mac
You can drag files and folders onto the yellow bad to add them or alternatively you can click on the ‘+’ sign to add the files from the open dialog.
Once you drag the file or folder, it will ask you to create a password:
Folder Added to Encryption
Enter the password and hit the Ecrypt button. A cool animation will follow and then the file will be encrypted and ready to be shared. Please note that nothing happens to the original file/folder that you are encrypting.
Now it’s just a matter of dragging the file onto the cloud service folder of your choice to securely upload it:
Dragging the File to the Cloud Folder
You will then let the person(s) with whom you are sharing this file what the password of the archive is in order for them to access it. They will also need to have Encrypto installed on their machines or the file will not open.
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