Cloud storage services are become an integrated part of our daily computer use. I don’t think one needs to go through the old email account when a Dropbox is more than enough to do the job. It’s user friendly, easy to use, secure and has a lot of advantages over other options that are available, for example immediate file syncing across all connected platforms, no attachment size limitation that most email services come as an additional headache with (we are not mentioning the Google’s recent integration of Drive with Gmail), and one must not forget that the free cloud space one gets for keeping our files, we can have access to it from any part of the world. Anyhow, a lot of people have security issues with cloud storage. Considering this issue of the users, here I am introducing to you a same kind of utility that is labeled as Secured Cloud Drive, that encrypts files with the help of military-grade 256-bit AES encryption before sending them over to the cloud drive that you have selected. It is able to support all main cloud services that include Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive and Bitcasa.
So you must know that how does it work? Secured Cloud Drive allows you to synchronize a Shared Folder on your own personal computer to an Exchange Folder on your cloud drive. Before synchronizing the files are encrypted with a 256-bit AES encryption layer, so nobody but only you have access to the files. The software is needed to download and decrypt the files on another machine. Once it gets installed, the application starts a configuration wizard that provides you with kind of introduction with how the service works. You are just required to follow couple of simple instructions in order to configure the above mentioned folders.
Tutorial to Encrypt Files in Windows 8 Before Syncing Them To Cloud Services
The Shared Folder does not have any specific requirements and can be placed anywhere on your machine. When prompted, you are required to click on the Select Folder button, from there choose the directory that you are looking forward to share, and after that click Next in order to proceed with the wizard.
Similarly, in the next step, the application will ask you to choose the Exchange Folder. This has a requirement. This folder must be placed on your cloud drive. During the testing process Dropbox account was used and everything worked great, but you must remember that you can use it with other cloud services too.
Next thing to, you are required to specify a password for the encrypted files, choose one. The application will ask for the same password when downloading files on another computer where you want to send the data to, so it’s preferable to choose a password that is easy and you can remember with ease, yet not so common that everybody can guess.
Secured Cloud Drive basically as the name suggests is secure because it uses a license code for each shared folder. You can get a single license free of cost, but additional licenses have to be paid for if you are looking forward to share more than a single folder. You can do so by simply clicking ‘Get More Licenses’ in order to obtain the license code using email after filling up the details that are required. Once you receive the license code, you are now required to enter it into the application and after that click on Next in order to complete the configuration wizard.
Now all that you are required to do is just simply store files on the Shared folder, and they will be automatically encrypted and after that synced to the exchange directory in a tick. The application has the capacity in it to create a ‘(folder name).encrypted’ directory on the cloud drive to which the encrypted files are moved in actual. Only you will have the access to the folder on the other computer by installing and similarly configuring Secured Cloud Drive on the computer where you want to download them.
Additional folders that you have made can be shared by simply clicking on ‘New Share’ from the application’s right-click context menu, that is present in the system tray. You also have the option to select further options for example ‘access or change existing shared folders’, ‘change password‘, ‘pause synchronization’ or just ‘exit the application’ if you want to.
Secured Cloud Drive is no wonder a remarkable application that keeps your files and data safe on the cloud in case they do not reach the desired destination. It is workable on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
