Summary: As the cloud storage solutions are becoming more popular nowadays, in addition to them being integrated with various devices, most people will have at least one cloud storage account that they can use to store their files online. While these cloud storage platforms usually have a strong encryption that protects the files stored within their servers, it doesn’t mean that they are free from possible cyber-attacks. Your files and other personal and private information might get stolen even though you already have a secure cloud storage in place. This is where Boxcryptor is needed, as it can give you the additional strong encryption for your files on the cloud.
Among the modern conveniences that the internet can give you today is the ability to store your files on the cloud and access them from anywhere on any device. It is thanks to the various cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and others that you can now get access to your files instantly at any time. The day of transferring your files manually via USB flash drives is over. Now, you can simply upload your files to one of your cloud storage accounts, and you can access them from other devices by accessing that same account.
The good thing about cloud storage solutions is that many of them already have a good encryption in place, ensuring that your files are perfectly safe when you store it on their servers. You can also activate various security protection features like the two-factor authentication, higher encryption system, and so on if you want to get more security out of your account. If you are storing important and sensitive files, it is all the more necessary for you to activate the full security features for your cloud storage account.
But, even with such a strong encryption, possible cyber-attacks can still happen. This is because no security is perfect, and it can be breached in different ways, especially when the users don’t know anything about online security best practices. Thus, it is necessary for you to think about the security of your files more. By adding an encryption system like Boxcryptor, it will give you super strong security for your private and sensitive files that you have stored on the cloud. We have interviewed Rebecca Sommer, Marketing Manager at Boxcryptor, to tell us more about what Boxcryptor is and how it can help us secure our files on the cloud.
The Little Background Story of Boxcryptor
Boxcryptor is a cloud encryption software that was initially released in 2011, just at the time when cloud storage solutions were still gaining widespread use across the globe. The vision of the company is to simplify the complex security system for the users and make sure that the users take the full control of their data. The software is actively developed by the company called Secomba GmbH, which is located in Augsburg, Germany.
Secomba GmbH was founded by Robert Freudenreich (CTO) and Andrea Pfundmeier (CEO) in 2011 with the main product being Boxcryptor, a cloud storage encryption system that can be used to double the encryption system of your cloud storage accounts. In 2019, the company has grown to have 30 employees on board, helping to develop and maintain this security software. This software is being used by customers all over the world, from individuals to companies, which come from different industries. Rebecca Sommer started the conversation by telling us about the background of Boxcryptor,
“Boxcryptor is a cloud security software that is developed by the company Secomba GmbH from Augsburg. The company was founded by Robert Freudenreich (CTO) and Andrea Pfundmeier (CEO) in 2011. By now the company has around 30 employees. Boxcryptor users come from all over the world and the software is used by many private users as well as companies, from different industries.”
How Boxcryptor’s Cloud File Encryption Helps Protect the Privacy of Internet Users
As your data is stored on the cloud, it means that you might expose it to various different parties that are interested in it. For instance, hackers and enterprises might take some interests in the private data that you have on your cloud storage account. So, they will try to get some information about them in different ways. This is where Boxcryptor becomes important for the internet users, as it protects the data privacy of the users and prevent anyone from accessing any of your private files that are stored on your cloud storage.
One of the purposes of Boxcryptor is to help internet users stay private online, while ensuring that they are the only one who can gain access to their data. With the additional encryption provided by this security software for your cloud storage accounts, you will ensure that your data, as well as individual files, are safe from any unauthorized access. Rebecca Sommer explained about how internet privacy has become the biggest concerns for internet users,
“Privacy is very important for internet users, because data is valuable and many large corporations as well as hackers, of course, show an interest in it for different reasons. It is important to have the option to stay private online, because one never knows who could get access to your data, and how people might profit from it. Privacy is at the center of most internet threats, so we would definitely agree that it is one of the biggest concerns.”
The Ways Employed by Boxcryptor to Ensure Total Privacy for the Users and Zero-Knowledge Encryption
There are various ways used by this encryption software to ensure that all the user’s data is totally protected. One of the features of Boxcryptor is the zero-knowledge encryption, meaning that all the encrypted data will allow no access from other than the user. Any third-party cannot access the files that have been encrypted with this software, meaning that even the software developer itself (in this case, Secomba GmbH) can’t have any access to the encrypted files in any way. This is what is called zero-knowledge encryption.
Another feature of this cloud encryption software is the total privacy provided for the users. With this software, users can have total privacy for their data because Boxcryptor is using the data-centric security that doesn’t allow anyone to gain access to the data itself. Any access to the data will require a password which is known only by the user. Moreover, any data that comes in and out of the user’s device will be encrypted before getting stored or downloaded from the cloud. Rebecca Sommer explained about the ways Boxcryptor uses to ensure total privacy for the users and zero-knowledge encryption,
“First of all: We believe that data-centric security is what people should focus on, opposite to code-centric security. In code-centric security, all data is theoretically readable for third parties. The only thing that protects the data are access controls in the code. In data-centric security, the data itself is protected, for example through encryption. If someone gains access to data, he or she cannot use it, because it is encrypted. This is what we do with our zero-knowledge encryption. Boxcryptor encrypts all data, before it leaves a user’s device and is sent to the cloud, for example. Additionally, it is encrypted with the user’s password that only the user knows. We as the provider of the encryption do not know the password, either. This means, we could never decrypt and access a user’s data, even if someone tried to force us to do so. This is our zero-knowledge guarantee that gives the user full control over his or her data.”
The Team Collaboration and Productivity Features Offered by Boxcryptor
Boxcryptor is a secure encryption system that allows the users to work with a team in a private and secure environment. It is ready for the enterprise-level team work with various features that support team collaboration and user management. Thus, this encryption software can help your company to work on a more secure cloud environment with various supporting features already available within reach.
The two important features that you can use for team collaboration and productivity are single sign-on and user provisioning. These two features combined will give any enterprise the secure cloud environment that they need to manage team workflow and collaboration in the best way possible. It allows you to assign one admin to manage the entire cloud environment, with provision to reset the user’s password in case they forgot about it. There are also many other features that support more productivity and team collaboration for enterprises. Rebecca Sommer explains about the team collaboration and productivity features offered by Boxcryptor,
“Boxcryptor has a large variety of team features that allow for secure collaboration on files and, at the same time, helps admins to control a company’s cloud environment. We added single sign-on to our product range last year, and our newest feature is user provisioning. The combination of these two features makes Boxcryptor enterprise-ready, because now, all users can be managed in a centralized way. Our Master Key enables admins to reset passwords, in case a company user forgets his or her password. Additionally, Boxcryptor offers Active Directory support, activity auditing, features for group and permission management and more.”
The Evolution of the Cyber Security Market and the Future of It
In the past, not many people were aware of the importance of internet security and privacy, and thus, the cyber security market was not too well-known back then. At best, they were implemented mainly on the company level, not at the individual level. However, nowadays, with different cloud storage solutions offered by different companies, each individual user has the need for complete online security and privacy. With the change of the market, a better security solution for cloud storage is important to ensure internet privacy and security for the users.
Going forward, zero-knowledge encryption should be the basic security solution for internet users who are using cloud storage solutions because this is the way to prevent any third party from accessing their data in any way. The zero-knowledge encryption ensures that only the user can get access to their data. To conclude our interview, Rebecca Sommer told us about what she thinks of the evolution of the cyber security market and the future of it,
“Since we first started, the cloud security landscape changed, of course. There are now more different solutions with different approaches to the same problem. However, the perception of how secure is secure enough is still very diversified. We think that zero knowledge should be the minimum of security, to avoid third parties to access sensitive data. Others believe that encryption at rest is enough of a precaution.
But on the other hand, we notice that we no longer have to explain to everyone what encryption is and why people need it. People are more aware of the security issues that come with all the great things the internet has to offer, and that is a good thing.”