Secure your Windows backups with nCrypted Cloud
Discover how to add a much-needed extra layer of security to your data with Nick Peers.
Ever wondered just how secure your data is when you upload it to the cloud? Providers such as OneDrive and Dropbox make a big song and dance about the fact your data is encrypted, but who holds the all-important encryption keys? If those keys are stored with your data, as is the case with most cloud providers, it leaves one glaring weakness in your secure backup plan.
If you’re serious about protecting your data, you need to add extra layers of encryption to it that aren’t left in the hands of your cloud storage provider. nCrypted Cloud separates your encryption keys from your data, and one of those keys (the UPK — or User Personal Key) never leaves your client devices. Your cloud provider has no access to your key, and nCrypted Cloud has no physical access to your data, neatly closing that particular security loophole.
nCrypted Cloud works with all major cloud providers, and tucks in lots of useful tools and features to keep inconvenience down and security up. Read on to discover how to add a much-needed extra layer of security to your data.
FIRST STEPS
Make sure you’ve installed the software for your chosen cloud service(s) before you set up nCrypted Cloud. It supports five major providers: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box and Egnyte. Head over to www.encryptedcloud.com/apps, where you’ll find a link for the Windows client. Click and save the installer to your hard drive, then double-click the setup file, and follow the prompts [ Image A]. File Explorer will restart, so don’t panic when the screen temporarily goes black. Once complete, leave ‘I don’t have an nCrypted Cloud account’ selected, and click ‘Next’.
Fill in the form, ignoring the prompt for a work email at the bottom. Remember, make sure your password is strong (but memorable — forget this and your data is toast), then check the terms of service box. Click ‘Next’ and wait while a recovery key is generated.
When prompted to enter your organisation’s name, click ‘Skip’, followed by ‘Finish’.
TWEAK INITIAL SETTINGS
nCrypted Cloud scans your PC for any recognised cloud providers, and automatically links to them — you’ll see a File Explorer window open, pointing to the nCrypted Cloud folder, inside which are shortcuts to each cloud provider. Don’t panic — nCrypted Cloud hasn’t started encrypting any files yet, so before you go further, review which providers have been linked, and verify you’re happy with the choices made.
If you want to exclude any, look in the Taskbar’s Notification area for the nCrypted Cloud blue padlock-like icon. Right-click this, and choose ‘Preferences’ to access the main Settings screen. Switch to the Account tab, where you’ll see a list of providers [ Image B] — simply deselect those you wish to exclude, and click ‘Apply’. You’re prompted to confirm each change by clicking ‘Yes’, then entering your nCrypted Cloud’s username and password.
ENCRYPT YOUR FIRST FOLDER
You’re ready to add that extra layer of protection to your cloudhosted data. To see how it works, enter your cloud folder in File Explorer and locate a small folder. Right-click it and choose ‘Make Private’, clicking ‘Yes’ when prompted. You’ll see a progress bar as nCrypted Cloud encrypts the folder using AES 256-bit encryption, then the folder icon refreshes to show a blue padlock. This padlock is added to each file and subfolder inside the folder, too, making encrypted files easy to identify.
Once complete, your cloud provider app should detect the change and upload the encrypted content to your cloud storage, overwriting the unprotected files. To verify this, rightclick your cloud storage app’s Taskbar Notification area icon, and choose ‘ View online’ (or similar) to access it through your web browser. Each file is now encrypted as a zip file, and is accompanied by an ‘nCrypted Cloud Readme’ file. Click this to be told the
folder has been protected, complete with a link to the nCrypted Cloud website. People can download the zip file, but they can’t access its contents without the unique password assigned to it (see ‘How data is encrypted’ above).
WORK WITH ENCRYPTED FILES
This confirms that the files are now protected by a second layer of encryption, so inaccessible to anyone even if they somehow gain access to your cloud provider account through the web. Look carefully at the file in File Explorer, however, and it appears to be unchanged. Double-click it, and it opens in the usual way. If you rightclick an encrypted file and choose ‘Properties’, however, you’ll see it’s now identified as a zip file (switch to the nCrypted Cloud tab and the file’s actual properties are revealed, including its size) [ Image C].
What’s happening? The nCrypted Cloud app on your PC is invisibly decrypting any files you open, then encrypting them again once they’re closed — including any saved changes. There’s a slight pause with larger files, but otherwise the process is seamless.
LIMITATIONS
One major limitation of nCrypted Cloud is that some applications can’t access your encrypted files from their traditional ‘Open’ dialog boxes. Those that use the latest Windows ‘Open/ Save’ dialog box, which contains the same Navigation pane found in File Explorer, have no problems opening files, but older programs that use a different style of dialog — typically with a ‘Places’ bar, listing five basic shortcuts — can’t access files within protected folders; instead, they simply see the encrypted zip files (if they see anything at all).
To work around this problem, you need to open the file from within File Explorer — right-click and choose ‘Open with...’ to select your target app, if it isn’t already the default for that file. Similarly, when you save files in these applications, they’re saved without encryption — to fix this, right-click the file (or its parent folder, if there are a lot of files to process) and choose ‘nCrypted Cloud > Re-apply policy’ (or ‘Make Private’, if that option isn’t present).
MORE ENCRYPTION OPTIONS
The ‘Make Private’ option can also be applied to individual files within your cloud folder when you right-click them [ Image D]. Sadly, you can’t select multiple files or folders at once to make them private — presumably for safety reasons — so you have to wade through your folders one at a time. Should you later wish to make files or folders publicly available again, right-click them as before, but this time choose ‘Remove Privacy’, clicking ‘Yes’ when prompted.
If you move a file from one folder to another within your cloud folder, you get a warning telling you the policy of the file will be changed to your name. This isn’t important unless you’ve set up multiple identities, which is beyond the scope of this tutorial, so ignore it.
If you try to move or copy the file outside of your cloud folder by dragging it to another folder or drive, you end up transferring the encrypted zip file instead. Just drag it back into your cloud folder to make it accessible again. If you want to make an unencrypted copy of your target file or folder, right-click it in File Explorer, and choose ‘Copy Unprotected’ to transfer it to the clipboard, then simply browse to your target folder, and press ‘Ctrl-V’ to copy the unprotected file.
SET UP TRUSTED SHARING
Like all good cloud providers, nCrypted Cloud makes it possible
to share selected data with trusted users. Better still, they don’t need to have their own cloud storage account or sign up for nCrypted Cloud. Simply right-click the file or folder you wish to share, and choose ‘Trusted Sharing’. A new window appears. Type the email address of each person you want to share the folder or file with into the Recipients box (click the button to its right to use your Outlook address book). You can also add a suitably descriptive message to explain what’s happening here, too.
If necessary, click ‘Edit Settings’ to fine-tune permissions. By default, your audience can only view the file or folder you send them. Select ‘Download’ to allow them to download an unencrypted copy of the file to their own computer, and select ‘Upload’ if you’d like them to be able to make changes to some or any of the shared content (you select what after checking the box), and then upload the file back through their browser [ Image E].
You’ll also see a Watermarked option — select this, and any shared files are watermarked with the recipients’ email and IP addresses, discouraging any potential data leaks.
For additional security, select ‘Require Access Code’ so your recipients need to enter an additional alphanumeric password to gain access to the files. Select ‘Email Code to Recipient’ to send a separate email containing the access code, or — if you’re ultra-cautious — communicate it to your selected recipient separately, perhaps by phone.
You’ll see the link is set to expire after one week — once this date passes, it won’t work. You can change this so the link only works once, expires after a day, or choose Other to set an expiry time by minute, hour, day or month. Once you’re happy, click ‘Share’.
HOW TRUSTED SHARING WORKS
Your recipient then receives one or two emails (the second containing the access code, if you opted to share it). Clicking ‘Access Share’ takes them to a web page where — if necessary — they first need to enter the required access code. Once entered, they’re shown the selected files or folders in the same Explorer-like interface you use when accessing nCrypted Cloud content through your own web browser.
You’re notified by email whenever anyone accesses the file, and if uploading is permitted, you’re also alerted when someone either uploads new files or folders to the share, or makes changes and uploads edited copies of existing files to the nCrypted Cloud collaboration page (they can overwrite the original or opt to create a duplicate).
To make changes to your share, log in to your account at https://login.ncryptedcloud.com, click the Collaboration Management icon and go to My Shares. Click the Settings button next to the shared folder, where you’ll find options for revoking access, extending the expiry date or tweaking the sharing settings.
SHARED ACCESS
While Trusted Sharing is a good way to quickly share selected files and folders with anyone, if you plan to take collaboration to the next level, you and your confidants need their own Dropbox and nCrypted Cloud accounts (they obviously need to link both accounts together, too — go to ‘Preferences > Account’ in nCrypted Cloud to do so). Once done, you can share a folder over the same cloud service without having to remove its encryption.
If you’d like anyone you’ve shared the folder with to have access, right-click the folder in File Explorer and first choose ‘Enable Shared Access’ to set up open enrolment — this means anyone with an nCrypted Cloud account automatically gains access to the folder when you share it with them through their own nCrypted Cloud account. Don’t select this if you want to review requests on a case-by-case basis.
Finally, right-click the folder again and choose the ‘Dropbox Share’ option. Share the file in the usual way and, after your recipients accept the invitation in Dropbox, they can view the folder’s contents normally in the nCrypted Cloud app, or online at the nCrypted Cloud web portal. If you skip open enrolment, when they attempt to open a file, they’re prompted to either download the encrypted (and therefore unreadable) file, or ask for access [ Image F] — you’re prompted by email. Revoke access at any time by simply right-clicking the file or folder in File Explorer and choosing ‘Remove Shared Access’ to remove everyone or ‘Shared With...’ to view and revoke access on an individual basis.
LOCK YOUR FILES
If you’ve got a PC or device in a shared location, you can lock your encrypted files when you’re not at your desk. First log into your account at https://login.ncryptedcloud.com, then browse to ‘Settings > Personal PIN’. Set a numerical PIN code (the longer, the more secure, obviously), and click ‘Update’. Exit and restart nCrypted
Cloud on your PC, then right-click its Taskbar Notification area icon and choose Preferences. You’ll now see that ‘PIN Lock’ is no longer grayed out [ Image G] — select this, enter your PIN code, and click ‘Apply’.
Right-click the nCrypted Cloud Taskbar Notification area icon again, and you’ll see a new ‘Lock’ option. Select this, and your protected storage folders — encrypted or otherwise — are all off-limits. Right-click the icon again and choose ‘Unlock’, followed by your PIN, to make them accessible again. When ‘PIN Lock’ is enabled, you are also prompted to enter your PIN whenever you start your PC.
PROTECT SENSITIVE FILES 11
Last, but not least, want to apply additional protection to individual files or folders? Right-click the nCrypted Cloud Taskbar Notification area icon and choose Preferences. Check the ‘Show advanced features’ box on the General tab, then click ‘Apply’. When you next right-click an item and open the nCrypted Cloud submenu, you’ll see a new ‘Sensitivity menu, offering five choices. Select one, and the item is colour-coded accordingly, from green (Low) through yellow (Medium), orange (High) and finally red (Top Secret). Select ‘none’ to remove any sensitivity setting.
This is fine, but how does it better protect your files? Simple: If you mark an item Top Secret, you’re prompted to enter your nCrypted Cloud account credentials each time you access it through the app [ Image H], providing another welcome layer of protection.