How to Encrypt and Protect Dropbox files with AxCrypt?

Dropbox is a great tool for sharing, syncing, and collaborating. It’s even better when you get to decide who has access to all of these files.

That part is your responsibility.

While cloud storage platforms such as Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox have made remote working, collaboration, and remote storage, sharing and exchange of information quite easy, it does come with a barrage of challenges that are silent but dangerous.

Data exposure; we are talking about a simple leak, like leaving your Dropbox credentials on a sticky note at your desk or even on a sticky note on your systems that says ‘Important Passwords’ or something as bad as sharing a public Dropbox link in an email thread that gets forwarded one too many times, turning “restricted access” into “open invitation” or a “community project”.

Cloud storage has made collaboration effortless, yes.

But has it made data exposure and breaches much more effortless, also yes.

Be it handling business documents, client data or even personal files, depending on Dropbox’s innate security features creates a gap or makes room for risks that users don’t notice until it is too late.

And that’s why AxCrypt has a smarter, simpler and seamless approach: Cloud security with encryption.

In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to protect Dropbox files with AxCrypt encryption and how AxCrypt cloud encryption for Dropbox storage gives you complete control over your data.

The minute security starts feeling a bit complicated, people drop the plan or resort to lazy solutions or alternatives that do not deliver total security.

Dropbox uses 256-bit encryption, but given today's evolving threat landscape, caution is essential. AxCrypt simplifies encryption and data security, offering a strong, user-friendly tool that secures data within seconds. Let’s look at how you can secure Dropbox files using AxCrypt.

But before you begin to use AxCrypt security for Dropbox files, you must first authenticate your account and grant sufficient permissions to AxCrypt to access and interact with the cloud storage platform. Once you have granted these permissions, the application will securely open, encrypt, decrypt and manage your files stored in the registered Dropbox account.

AxCrypt never stores your data; only encrypted files are processed.

Two ways to secure Dropbox files using AxCrypt:

1. Right-Click Encryption:

2. Using the Action Menu:

Two ways to decrypt or open the encrypted files:

1. Using Stop Secure - this permanently decrypts the file.

Please note: You can also use the action menu at the bottom right to stop secure.

2. Open Secured - this temporarily decrypts the file.

Please note: You can also perform this action via the action menu. Your files stay encrypted and secure, open briefly while you work, and re-encrypt on exit.

If you shared a file via Dropbox before encrypting it with AxCrypt, understanding when and how you apply encryption is as important as the tool itself. Let’s say you did send an important file via Dropbox and it was unencrypted. You do not want the recipient to view the files or download them, but here is the good news: you can encrypt them, but immediately.

What this action does is revoke the recipient's access to that file. When they search for the file in Dropbox, or even if they revisit that file, they will be presented with a message stating that the file has been deleted.

Dropbox and cloud security platforms alike are built for speed, accessibility and smooth collaboration. But it is encryption that makes it safer for data to exist and be transferred around.

If you are someone working on sensitive files, documents, or even sensitive information that could have adverse effects when exposed or in the wrong hands, the risk is not storage. The risk here is who has access to it, who granted it and what they did with all that information.

This is why encryption is non-negotiable:

Safest approach?

Load all your files onto the cloud and encrypt them with AxCrypt by using any of the aforementioned methods of data encryption.

You can learn more about cloud security and cloud data encryption in our Resources and Guides page. Because when you protect Dropbox cloud storage with AxCrypt, even if access is compromised, your data isn’t.

Read here for more information.

Or.

If you store information locally rather than in the cloud, encrypt it with AxCrypt. Built-in storage lacks security. Protect both the contents and the container, not just the container.

Read more in this article: Why Your Computer’s Built-In Encryption Isn’t Always Enough?