-1

What is the best way to configure whole disk encryption on two laptops sharing a Dropbox? If I encrypt both drives, what will happen to the Dropbox files?

Fred Marr
  • 53
  • 3

2 Answers2

3

They'll be encrypted on the hard drive, but not on Dropbox itself. So, very little, essentially. When the computer is running Dropbox will access the files exactly the same as it did before.

Dan
  • 15,430
  • 1
  • 36
  • 67
  • How does that work? Can you expand on this? Do I need to close Dropbox before encrypting the drive? – Fred Marr Feb 29 '12 at 15:39
  • Files are uploaded to Dropbox by software running on your computer. Software running on your computer sees the unencrypted data on the hard drive as long as the disk is mounted. If you want to put encrypted data on Dropbox you must create an encrypted file containing the data, then upload that encrypted file. (Put another way, whatever you see when you upload something to Dropbox is what is being uploaded. If you see sensitive information you're uploading sensitive information, and anyone who compromises your Dropbox has your data.) – voretaq7 Feb 29 '12 at 15:48
  • Hypothetical question: In the past, when I have encrypted a drive using TrueCrypt, the initial encryption is happening (for the most part) while the user is still logged in. What if Dropbox is running at the same time? Wouldn't this upload encrypted versions of the files to Dropbox? – Fred Marr Feb 29 '12 at 15:53
  • The files in dropbox will not be encrypted. The encryption is Disk-level invisible to Dropbox. – Zoredache Feb 29 '12 at 19:04
1

If you encrypt a drive, only that drive's data is encrypted.
The file when moved off the drive are no long on the drive, so they're no long encrypted.

Chris S
  • 77,945
  • 11
  • 124
  • 216