Cryptomator is an amazing piece of software for desktop and mobile operating systems. It’s the equivalent of bringing your own encryption to the cloud service of your choice. Whether you have Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive, or something else, all of these can be used with Cryptomator. Let’s take a look at how it works.
A little background info on Cryptomator
Cryptomator is developed by a small team at a company known as Skymatic in Germany.
It is available for all the major operating systems as well as mobile. This includes Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. While the desktop OS versions are free, the mobile versions do cost a small fee in order to help with continued development.
Why Cryptomator?
It might be a surprise to some people to learn that their files are not secret or safe from prying eyes when they store them on a cloud service from a major company such as Microsoft, Google, or Dropbox. If you check their privacy policy or the specific information regarding file encryption, most of the time employees of these companies do have the ability to see your data.
For those that want to continue using their cloud provider of choice without switching but would prefer more security, Cryptomator is the best tool here. It handles the encryption and lets your cloud software do the rest.
How it works
Users must first make a “vault” file through Cryptomator that consists of a folder and some settings. This will go in the Dropbox/Google Drive/Onedrive folder.
After this, users only have to open the vault through Cryptomator and they will see a folder in which they can drag and drop their files into. Anything put into this folder is automatically encrypted. The beauty of this system is unlike other encryption software methods (Veracrypt), individual files can be changed and updated without the entire folder having to be reuploaded.
If you make changes to a photo or document, the cloud software will only upload the changed encrypted file and not have to reupload the entire folder.
The Cryptomator software is fairly simple to use and doesn’t have too many options that could overwhelm users unlike other security-related software.
Final Thoughts
Ever since I discovered Cryptomator, it has made me feel more comfortable storing sensitive information in the cloud. It’s highly recommended for those that want to protect their data but want to enjoy the convenience of cloud storage.
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