Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Andrea and I am CEO and one of the founders of Boxcryptor. Together with my co-founder and our CTO Robert we started Boxcryptor back in 2011. We provide, the name says it – an encryption solution. We and our team are located in Augsburg, Germany.
What is Boxcryptor and what is it most useful for?
Boxcryptor is an end-to-end-encryption software optimized for cloud storage. Users of Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and many other storage providers (and of course ownCloud users) can use Boxcryptor to encrypt and protect their data.
We started Boxcryptor because we wanted to use Dropbox and add encryption without giving up the cloud advantages: we still wanted to be able to share files with others and access them on all our devices. Back in 2010, there was no encryption software available on the market which could fulfill these requirements.
Therefore we developed our own solution and Boxcryptor was born. Boxcryptor encrypts the data on the local device before the files are uploaded to a cloud of your choice. What’s most important for us: We want everybody to be able to use encryption even if they are no IT experts. Therefore we focus not only on the security aspects, but also on usability.
Against which threat model does Boxcryptor protect me?
Users often ask us, if Boxcryptor protects them against the NSA. Well, 100% security can never be guaranteed. And of course we don’t know what happens behind closed doors at the NSA. But if your use case is to protect your company’s sensitive information (e.g. HR data, sales insights, client data) against internal and external threats, Boxcryptor is the tool of choice.
If you want to make sure that your personal data like you insurance details, health data or financial documents are safe, Boxcryptor adds the security you need without limiting you to any storage provider or a certain device. Clients from more than 190 countries already rely on our security made-in-Germany and add security to their clouds.
Why have you decided against an open source business model?
There are good reason for and against being open source for a company. We just had to decide for one road at some point. One main reason why we decided to keep Boxcryptor closed source is to protect our business model, so we can finance the further development of Boxcryptor, independently from others or donations.
As Boxcryptor is not open source, has your software been audited by an independent party?
Boxcryptor has not been audited yet.
In which direction do you want the Internet to evolve?
For us as security provider, we are curious to see how the general security awareness and knowledge evolves. During the last 6 years, we realized that more and more people really care about their privacy and the security of their data.
When we started 6 years ago, we had to explain why there is a need for an encryption software for cloud storage providers. Then there was Snowden and everybody started to realize who important their data is and how easy security gets lost. But there is still along way to go!
Nice, do you have something else to say to the community?
Boxcryptor is available for free in a basic version, so give it a try and let us know what you think! Moreover, if you are interested in security topics, have a look at our blog where we share tips and security insights regularly: https://www.boxcryptor.com/en/blog/
