File Encryption - Online Data Safety (Page 2 of 2)

Microsoft SkyDrive and Office Live WorkSpace

As of now, both of these services are separate. Each of these services from Microsoft offers you 25GB of storage. Microsoft has announced that it will be combining both these services so that you do not have to login twice to access your files. Serving as unmanaged remote data storage, these services need manual uploading and downloading of data. Once you upload the data, it is safe using the SSL encryption method. However, the data is not safe as long as it is in transit. There is no provision from MS to encrypt the data before it leaves your computer. If you want that additional security, you need to install some sort of file or disk encryption software to encrypt the files before you upload them. The benefits of using a disk encryption software is that your data is safe on the local disk as well. Both SkyDrive and Office Live Workspace are free to use as of now.

Google Cloud Services

Google Docs is a famous cloud based service used mainly by individuals and small teams. The service is free as of now. Users can upload documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to collaborate. Unlike SkyDrive that serves as a remote storage, Google Docs is used more as a collaboration tool.

Google Apps is another facility from Google that offers paid storage space for business purpose. Designed specially for small business owners, Google Apps has the provision for paid online storage. The users of this service pay a nominal fee based on the amount of space they need for cloud storage. These storage servers employ complete encryption using SSL 128 bit.

Another Software offered as a Service (SAAS) by Google is the Google Cloud Print service. It allows printing of files stored in Google’s remote servers without having to download them. The data transfer to your local printer is encrypted using SSL file encryption technique. Google Cloud Print requires a proxy (available in Google Chrome OS) to be installed on your computer before you can use Google Cloud Print.

TIP: To have Google encrypt your data transfers for Google Docs, use https://docs.google.com instead of just http://docs.google.com

Mozy and IDrive – Managed Remote Backup Services

Managed remote backup services allow you to create backup sets for online storage. The storage process initiation can be automatic or manual. The best thing about both Mozy and IDrive is that they offer a software that is resident on your computer and encrypts the entire backup set before sending it out of the computer. Thus, you do not need a separate disk/file encryption software as in case of the Microsoft SkyDrive or Office Live Workspace. The file encryption online is again SSL based. These SAAS (Software as a Service) offer you the liberty of setting up a time for backup of entire set or for uploading a file as soon as it is changed.

Email Encryption Services

To make sure that your emails leave your computer safely, you need a software that encrypts the emails before they leave your computer. Plenty of email encryption services exist, some of which are free too. The only problem with email encryption services is that both sender and recipient should have the encryption software. If the sender sends an encrypted email and the recipient does not have the encryption software, s/he is given a link with a “key”. This link is the URL to the encrypted email that is resident on the email SAAS. The recipient can reach the mail using the link and the “key” helps in decoding the email. Though secure, the process can be very tiresome in some cases. Thus, I recommend it only for emails that contain really confident data. As said earlier, some email file encryption online software are free. You can check out the Comodo email encryption software that employs hashing to encrypt your data. The software is available for download at Comodo website.

EndNote

The above online file encryption services and software are just the ones widely used. You can search the Internet for more such services if you wish to check out more. You may also ask about our take on any online file encryption software or service if you need a second opinion. You may also share any file encryption online services with others if you wish, using our comments section.