Secure your cloud backups

If you back up data to the cloud, you may be concerned about its security.

All cloud providers promise to encrypt your data for privacy purposes, but what kind of encryption is provided, and where are the keys required to decrypt your data stored? If you’re at all paranoid, you will want those keys kept in your personal possession, a technique which is known as client-side encryption. Sadly, not many cloud backup providers offer this — neither Dropbox nor OneDrive do, for example.

If this is a concern, you can encrypt your data locally before uploading it to the cloud — if you’re already using VeraCrypt, for example, you could simply create an encrypted volume inside your cloud folder and store all sensitive data in there. On the other hand, if you primarily use your cloud provider for syncing data between your various devices, you’ll need to choose a solution that enables you to access your data on whichever platforms you need.

There are a number of options out there, but one that’s unlimited and free for personal use is nCrypted Cloud ( www.encryptedcloud.com/apps/ windows). Once installed, set up your free nCrypted Cloud account, then connect cloud providers (Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and Google Drive are all supported) and finally choose the folders that you want to encrypt. If you want access from other computers or mobile devices (Mac, iOS and Android are also supported), then simply install the relevant app or program, link it to your nCrypted Cloud account and you’re done.