Transparent file encryption

Question

So I'm paranoid...well kind of.

I'm curious if there is a solution out there that will take files from a specific location, automatically encrypt them using a provided key, and copy them to another location to be pushed into the cloud (dropbox, network drive, owncloud ect). And automatically copies changed files as well.

Here is a small diagram to explain

[ Folder ] ---automatic encrypt/copy----> [ Cloud Synced folder ]

Also, such a solution on another computer would copy the files out of the cloud synced folder, decrypt using the provided key them and copy them to another folder on that system.

While this certainly won't protect someone from stealing my laptop and getting my files, it will prevent people who get my files on the other end of the internet from being able to read them. Not that I don't trust companies like Microsoft, Google ect, because I don't - I just want to know that whatever harddrive my files go onto that my data is encrypted and fairly secure.

The keyword here is automatic - I could certainly use software like AES crypt and do it by hand. I know about Truecrypt and I think it's an awesome piece of software - but I think it might be to heavy to store a volume in something like dropbox (it is certainly possible to create a 2GB container for your entire dropbox).

I know what I'm describing it's overly difficult to implement - I just want to make sure that I don't hack together some scripts if there already exists a solution.

Answer 1

I think I have an answer to my own question.

Someone had a post about https://www.boxcryptor.com/ but deleted their post.
This seems like a nice solution-in-a-box(TM) as they provide a way to access the files on really every platform (well except WP7). This is nice for someone who just wants something "that works" doesn't have to worry about rooting/jailbreaking ect. I haven't tried it yet - but it seems like something that is solid.

Another solution that I've come across is encfs. enfs is based on Linux, but it looks like someone compiled a version for Windows (just tested it on Win 7 x64 and it seems to work!): http://members.ferrara.linux.it/freddy77/encfs.html Someone does have a version for Android: http://code.google.com/p/cryptonite/ but this requires root. I'll probably try this for awhile and see how it works out.

It does look like you can successfully use an encrypted volume on services like dropbox - but it seems like a hassle because you have to remember to unmount it...I have read if you forget to do this it will corrupt the volume (eek!).

Note: I am purposely ignoring SecretSync (http://getsecretsync.com/ss/) because they have a yearly renewal fee. I personally think that's really dumb for this kind of product - it's like "oh you didn't pay us the fee this year...looks like you won't be able to open your files".

Answer 2

FileWall does totally transparent file level encryption (ie the file names remain unchanged): http://hummerstudio.com/filewall It doesn't work though if ie the dropbox folder is shared with multiple people.

AxCrypt is pretty transparent too but it does change the file extension: https://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/ This means you can't index your files locally anymore with something like DocFetcher

Hope that helps, patrick