Tighten file security in the cloud

Prevent unauthorised access with a secondary layer of encryption

Add a secondary layer of encryption and prevent unauthorised access to cloud-hosted files

Just how secure is your data in the cloud? Services like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive encrypt your files, but the all-important key that’s used to decrypt those files is stored online, out of your control. With online security breaches on the increase, can you trust your cloud storage provider to keep your most sensitive files private?

Viivo is one of a growing number of tools that provide greater protection for your data by adding a second level of encryption to your files while keeping the decryption key firmly in your possession, stored locally on your Mac. Even if your cloud storage is compromised, any files on it that you’ve encrypted using Viivo remain protected.

Viivo’s free, non-commercial version covers most people’s needs. With it, you can create up to five folders called ‘lockers’, inside which all files are automatically encrypted. You can also encrypt individual files on the fly using Viivo’s Drop Zone, and access your files on other devices too, including your iPhone and iPad. The Pro version (£4.19 per month) gives you unlimited lockers and lets you encrypt files on your iPad and iPhone too, but here we’ll focus exclusively on the free version. Nick Peers

With online security breaches on the rise, can you trust your cloud storage will remain private?