Secure Your Dropbox Data with BoxCryptor

Dropbox, a cloud file storage service provider, is the most prominent of all. Dropbox provides a quick and easy way to store and sync your files, photos, docs, and videos in the cloud and share them easily among your friends and family members. However, when your files are uploaded, Dropbox encrypts the files at the sever end by which your files could be accessed by Dropbox and authorities that it grants access.

Recently, due to a security flaw, it was reported that there was a four-hour security glitch at Dropbox where any random user could log into any of the accounts at Dropbox with any password. Although your files were encrypted with Dropbox’s powerful encryption tool, yet it could be accessed by anyone from anywhere. This led to a high security alert.

The best way to secure Dropbox data is to encrypt them before you upload. That way, neither Dropbox authorities can decrypt it nor any hacker and thus your files remain secured, no matter what.

Secure Dropbox Data with BoxCryptor

You can easily secure Dropbox data within your account so that even if your account has been hacked, your files will be secured and needs to be decrypted in order to view them. BoxCryptor is one such tool that allows you to upload a secure, encrypted version of your files that only you can access.

BoxCryptor is a Windows-based solution for file-by-file encryption using AES-256 bit encryption. It encrypts data on-the-fly, which means that when data is moved to its drive, it will immediately encrypt and store it in linked Dropbox folder. The encrypted files can also be viewed on Mac and Linux systems as it is compatible with the Encrypted Filesystem (EncFS)

BoxCryptor is available in two versions:

Free – Limited encrypted data to 2GB, and
Unlimited – Available for a one-off cost ($15 for Personal Users, or or $50 for Business)

Installing and Configuring BoxCryptor to Secure Dropbox Data

Start the BoxCryptor installation on once you’ve have downloaded the installation file from here. We have used the free version of BoxCryptor in this tutorial. The installation is pretty simple. Just follow the prompts.

Once installed, you’ll be asked to chose the source directory. You need to make sure that you have selected the proper directory where you want to store your encrypted data. Additionally, you need to select the drive letter for BoxCryptor to mount a virtual drive.

Next, you’ll have to specify a password to your BoxCryptor volume to encrypt your files. BoxCryptor then acts as a virtual hard disk, encrypting and decrypting data in real-time.

Files become readable if the correct password is entered else this is how they would look:

Make sure that you do not delete the encfs6.xml file present in the BoxCryptor folder. The XML files helps BoxCryptor decrypt your files.

BoxCryptor – Conclusion

Since BoxCryptor allows you to encrypt and decrypt your online data which is saved on cloud storage-based directories, it proves out to be the most handy tool. It  will definitely help encrypt and secure Dropbox data without even having to worry about it.

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