How to Upload to Google Drive From Cryptomator Windows 10

Storing confidential data in the deject securely with Cryptomator

TL;DR: If you lot have some data you need to store safely in your deject folder (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) jump directly to the Cryptomator setup.

I've been slacking off on backups of my personal things for quite a while, despite existence a software engineer who knows the importance of backups and a working restore process and have been doing information technology on work-related stuff (sources, databases, etc.). I've had some backups on CDs & DVDs like ten years ago, then moved the "of import" stuff to the cloud (Dropbox at offset, then OneDrive, Google Drive), but it's been inconsistent and disorganized. Withal, lot'southward of stuff accept only been transferred from an sometime difficult drive to a new one when changing PCs, without whatsoever backup at all.

Lately, I've finally decided to clean things upward, removing all the unnecessary mess and archiving the balance in a cloud storage. However, I've concluded up with a few documents & contracts that necessitated keeping, but I've non been content having them only sit in that location in a cloud binder, withal trustworthy and secure the provider seems to exist. I'm not and so afraid of them getting attacked but of someone getting hold of my account through more usual ways, such as social engineering, for example. What I'm looking for is a style to password-protect my information whenever I don't need to access it.

End-to-cease encryption (E2EE)

In plain English, this means that all your data is encrypted with some kind of password/key earlier it departs from your device (be it desktop, laptop, smartphone), is transferred and stored encrypted and then is but decrypted afterwards you download it back to your device with the same password/key. Therefore, only a person who has the password/primal tin read that data, even if they go admission to the encrypted version in the cloud. Of form this doesn't protect you from someone who has access to your device but that is a different topic altogether.

See wiki on E2EE or google it for a more than complete and correct explanation. I accept considered a few options how to shop my confidential files in the cloud:

VeraCrypt

Based on the TrueCrypt, the tool allows you lot to create an encrypted container/partition which you can so connect equally a local drive and store information in it as if it was just some other disk. While this is great and quite fast locally, the problem is that the container is a single file (e. 1000. i GB) and any change in it causes a full synchronization event — plainly very inefficient to upload the whole container each fourth dimension you update a unmarried file inside it.

E2EE cloud storage provider

In that location are providers that seem to address my business by providing E2EE as a part of their storage offering, e. thou. Tresorit or MEGA. However, I don't really demand and so much storage to justify paying for it, if there are other, cheaper (free) options which I can use with my existing deject providers.

Boxcryptor

This ane seemed interesting, doing the encryption on your device and storing the individual encrypted files within the local synced folder of a deject storage yous are already using (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.). However, I've been put off past a few things:

• During installation, you need to accept a Information privacy license/contract in High german. I'thou non saying I fully read all those licenses we accept during software installation, but I'd at least like to be able to do and then, without speaking German or depending on machine translation. I know not everyone knows English language either but then they are not reading this article :)
• Despite having a free tier, you lot demand to annals and login. I'm not sure why that would be necessary and honestly, I'm non willing to try and find out.

Cryptomator

Like to Boxcryptor, your encrypted files become stored in your local deject folder (or any folder for that thing, yous can utilise floppy disks if you nonetheless fancy those) in a so-called Vault. It ticks the boxes for what I've been looking for:

• the files are stored separately, so there's only need to synchronize the changed/added/removed files, non the whole vault,
• client-side: no accounts, no data shared with any online service,
• AES encryption with 256-bit central length,
• file names become encrypted & folder structure gets obfuscated,
• unlimited number of vaults, each with an individual password,
• the vault's size is flexible (unlike with VeraCrypt which can grow just doesn't compress dorsum), limited only by the size of the underlying storage, with simply a negligible overhead.

To be completely frank, there is one problem I've encountered and depending on the manner you work it might affect you considerably. Working with the drive it attaches is not actually transparent for some programs — they seem to have a problem opening the file directly from the drive. As an example, I can open up a PDF file in Acrobat Reader but not in Edge. Or a video won't play in the PotPlayer. I don't see a clear pattern simply I think it'due south related to how that program implements file operations. I'd just take to file an issue on the projection's GitHub simply for the time beingness and for my use-cases, I'm OK with this limitation.

Setting up Cryptomator

The setup is quite uncomplicated but the UX of the app is not that skilful at the moment, especially for the kickoff time user, then here you get:

1. Download from the cryptomator.org and install
2. Launch the app and you are "greeted" with the following window:

3. Click on the plus push and select "Create new vault"

4. Browse to the folder where you want to create your vault (eastward. thousand. OneDrive folder) and write a name of the vault (e. m. Confidential) — information technology will exist the proper name of a binder Cryptomator creates for you in the current directory.

5. Afterward striking save, yous are prompted to create a password for the vault. This should exist quite strong (long and circuitous) considering if someone gets concur of your encrypted data, they have a lot of fourth dimension to try to brute-forcefulness decrypt it (using dictionary attacks and other techniques). There are guides on how to create such a countersign all over the internet. Past the fashion, maybe you might want to use a countersign manager if y'all similar.

6. After your vault is created, you can choose how you desire to work with the vault, most chiefly whether to relieve the password locally and automobile-unlock (merely exercise this if you trust the security of your device) or y'all want to unlock it manually, entering the password each time. The latter might be safer, depending on your state of affairs, whether you trust everyone who has access to your computer.

seven. At present y'all merely open the Cryptomator drive, re-create files over and to exist sure, y'all can have a await at your encrypted information in the vault.

Unlocked vault automatically mapped past the Cryptomator as a network drive

Encrypted Vault as visible in the target binder (OneDrive in this example), already synced to the cloud

The file path, name and contents are all encrypted when stored

Don't forget you can't simply copy files directly to the vault (eastward. g. on OneDrive) — they won't magically become encrypted. Y'all always need to work with an unlocked vault, i. e. within the network folder Cryptomator attaches for you.

That's it, from now on, your confidential files are much more secure with a little upfront and a minimum ongoing endeavour. Cryptomator supports all the major platforms — Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS then you can even access the files on other devices, synced automatically through your cloud provider. I personally will besides take a look on how to have the data automatically backed up to some other cloud storage in an unlikely situation that it is lost by one provider for some reason.

All of the mentioned approaches have some bug, exist it performance, ease of use, cost, etc. Ultimately it's your choice which i you lot choose, if any, but practise yourself a favour and take at to the lowest degree some precautions; meliorate safe than sorry. And remember:

"Just because yous're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't later on you."
― Joseph Heller, Grab-22

goffyeavey.blogspot.com

Source: https://medium.com/@dlugos.ivan/storing-confidential-data-in-the-cloud-securely-with-cryptomator-d89add073ba

Share this post