Encrypted Google Docs Alternative

[Ozie Melzer]

Duringa recent test run to see if my personal backups work as intended, I noticed that I store my GPG key next to files encrypted with that key on the same disk. Although the disk is encrypted (LUKS) and the key has a strong passphrase, this feels a bit wonky.

While having a second drive just for the key might improve the situation, it also feels a bit overkill. Hence I am looking for a more pragmatic solution. I thought about placing the key on a separate partition that is encrypted separately (with a different password of course), but I am not sure if it is a good idea.

Yes, not ideal to put the key in the same place as the cipher text. For example, perhaps files on the open LUKS containers are archived and uploaded to the same object storage account, as a file based backup. An adversary paying attention will take the private key and attempt to decrypt with it.

In the real world, practical compromises are necessary. On disk keys are easy to use. Passphrase protected key slows an attacker from using it, but its only a matter of time. If a copy of a GPG private key is taken, consider it compromised. Consider rekeying.

Ideally, do not store the private key on an online storage. Use a smartcard hardware token for private key, YubiKey or similar. Store cold backups on tiny storage devices or paper keys, and put these a secure offline place, like the business continuity safe. Extraordinary measures, but secrets are special as they unlock other data.

In reality, the key file is nothing more than a sort of "superpassword", so if, in turn, it has a sufficiently long password, I don't see any particular risks. I emphasize long enough: to expand the space of both a dictionary and brute force search it is much more important to have many characters, rather than a larger alphabet

Are there any alternatives to that dilemma?In some extreme cases USB tokens are used which are physically removed and inserted when required, sometimes with a second level of access (for example TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt container etc).

Helping you cut ties with data-hungry big tech apps has been at the base of Proton's mission since the beginning to create a better internet where privacy is the default. Alongside its secure cloud storage, the Swiss-based privacy firm offers a homonym secure email integrated with an encrypted calendar feature and one of the best VPN services on the market.

Proton Docs comes as a way to ensure that document creation and collaboration are both secure and user-friendly. As with all its products, Docs is completely free to use. It's worth noting that you can use the tool only on the web at the time of writing.

"In a world where big tech constantly breaches privacy and mishandles data, Docs offers a seamless and reliable solution for document editing and collaboration," said Anant Vijay Singh, Product Lead for Proton Drive. "Our users can confidently create and share documents, resting easy knowing their information is protected."

Docs promises to be powered by the same level of encryption as Proton Drive. Put simply, all the documents you create or collaborate with are protected by end-to-end encryption. This means that only the sender and receiver can access the content. The company told me that even changes and keystrokes are encrypted, as well as file names and paths.

Thanks to the recent acquisition of the encrypted note-taking app Standard Notes, the team has been able to integrate Docs with all the popular features you need for professional usage, ranging from support for markdown and rich text to code blocks and checklists. Plus, Docs also supports different document formats, including Microsoft .docx, to ensure seamless integration.

What helped the team, the company said, is that Proton Drive was built already with the prospect of adding on these capabilities at a later date. A few weeks before the Docs launch, in fact, Proton Drive was upgraded with new sharing features in preparation for the integration of the new collaborative tool.

While the new addition is surely welcomed by privacy-conscious users looking for a reliable Google Docs alternative, Proton promises this is just the first step in making document editing and collaboration more private.

In the meantime, both free and paid Proton users can start using the Docs tool on the web. Remember, though, you'll need to upgrade to a premium subscription if 5GB of storage isn't enough for your needs.

The implementation of E2E means not even Proton can access your docs content or metadata (such as file names), and user data is kept on Swiss servers, where it is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws.

Following Proton's recent acquisition of the encrypted notes app Standard Notes, Docs integrates many of its popular features, such as full support for markdown and rich text, code blocks and checklists. From Proton's press release, here are the highlights:

Drawing on its privacy-is-everything stance, the company says that every document, keystroke, and even cursor movement is end-to-end encrypted in real time. "Unlike Google Docs, Proton's commitment to never harvesting user data for any purpose, means information remains strictly private," promises the company.

Proton Docs is currently a web application, but Proton says it will eventually be offered as a dedicated app across platforms. Alongside Docs, Proton Drive includes a calendar, file storage, a password manager, and more.

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Assuming there were issues with my extension, I tried doing it with a single ruby extension file. That is also ending up with the same error. Tried different extensions that I have encrypted before but in vain.

SketchUp only knows how to load encrypted files created with its own proprietary encryption system, so any direct alternative would require violation of the TOS prohibition against reverse engineering SketchUp. You could roll your own, but of course you would have to come up with a way to decrypt your own proprietary coding and then load the plain text Ruby code. But unless your proprietary scheme is itself uncrackable, you are back to square one.

Greetings to the Forum, I sincerely regret having to give up Boxcryptor. I was really excited about it and it was exactly what I needed. So I'm looking for a similar product but I'm having a hard time finding. in essence, I often have to edit my documents on the go (on smartphones and tablets) and none of the products I've tested so far is able to make changes to my excel sheets (or Google Sheets) directly on the Cloud. Everyone downloads a local copy. I ask you if you can give me an indication of another service similar to Boxcryptor but above all that reflects my needs.

The various Cryptomator, Axcrypt, etc. they don't seem to offer that possibility. Thank you

As for me cryptomator for mac works unstable for now. It has several critical bugs with Microsoft files (Excel and Word) - v.1.7.5. It prevents saving new files and corrupts existing. Not an alternative for me. Not now.

I moved to Tresorit. Decided against OneDrive Vault because it does not offer end-to-end encryption and common backup tools can't backup the files in Vault. Decided against Cryptomator because it does not run on Windows on Arm (Tresorit does run on WOA).

We have moved to iCloud since Apple offers full end-to-end encryption. I hate to say it works better than Boxcryptor (no bugs) and was pretty smooth. I'm sad to see Boxcryptor go. We had a paid business account and were shocked by the poor Boxcryptor communication. But live goes on and encrypted iCloud is actually better.

I neither find Cryptomator nor Tresorit nor other products as really convincing, because the security always depends on the strength of the password. In the case of Cryptomator, the encrypted masterkey file (which is protected with your password and contains the crypt phrase and salt for decrypting the actual data content) is stored in the same location as the encrypted files. In the case of Tresorit, pretty much the same functionality is labelled as the 'roaming profile' (which is stored on their server). (No comment on iCloud - the whole point of Boxcryptor was to make this independent of the cloud provider.)

The developers argue that this is not an issue as long as the password (for the masterkey or the roaming profile) is sufficiently strong and thus prevents brute-forcing or similar password-guessing attacks. This is generally true but omits the fact that an attacker may also retrieve the password with other means.

Boxcryptor had the possibility of entirely storing this information locally, and I did not find another product so far that offers this choice (even though Boxcryptor neither did this by default). The approach has admittedly the disadvantage that you if you lose this information, access to your data is truly lost, but personally I would rather accept this risk than having a product or a vendor storing this information (yes, encrypted with my password) on my behalf.

I just don't see the necessity that this should be the case without even offering an alternative approach - which is separately storing the encrypted masterkey and the actual content / data. Again, I understand the design decision, but I am personally not happy with this from a security standpoint.

I often have to edit my documents on the go (on smartphones and tablets) and none of the products I've tested so far is able to make changes to my excel sheets (or Google Sheets) directly on the Cloud. Everyone downloads a local copy. I ask you if you can give me an indication of another service similar to Boxcryptor but above all that reflects my needs.

The various Cryptomator, Axcrypt, etc. they don't seem to offer that possibility. Thank you

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