Dropbox to Offer End-to-End, Zero-Knowledge Encryption

Today, Dropbox announced plans to increase the security of its file hosting service by implementing end-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption.

As TechCrunch reports(Opens in a new window), this isn’t a feature being implemented by Dropbox’s existing team, rather, Dropbox has acquired “several key assets(Opens in a new window)” from German encryption experts Boxcryptor. As far as Boxcryptor’s founders are concerned, though, they are “joining Dropbox(Opens in a new window)” and have a new mission to add zero-knowledge encryption to the service.

Users will likely be wondering why Dropbox needs this when it already offers 256-bit AES encryption(Opens in a new window) for files and uses SSL and TLS to ensure files are protected “in transit.” Both are important for security, but it’s not a zero-knowledge service at the moment.

Boxcryptor’s IP will allow users to maintain full control over who can see the contents of their encrypted files, and even Dropbox won’t know and can’t access the contents of files even if it wanted to. That way, Dropbox can advertise a higher level of guaranteed security to business and enterprise customers.

What we don’t know yet is which paid plans will get zero-knowledge encryption as a feature. There are Dropbox plans aimed at individuals, households, solo workers, teams, and organizations. It’s likely the Enterprise plan for organizations and the Advanced plan for complex teams will get the new feature at least. When that will happen is also an unknown right now.

As for existing Boxcryptor customers, they can rest assured that nothing is changing and “no contracts, customer data or keys will migrate to Dropbox.” All customer data will remain in the company’s German data centers. However, no new accounts or purchases will be allowed, so Boxcryptor will only continue to act as a service for existing customers.