Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Chris S.14's avatar
Chris S.14
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago
Solved

How secure is the Vault?

The new Vault feature is useful, but I can't see any information about how secure it is, and what if any encryption is used on the files stored in there?

 

Is this a password protected folder?  How hard is it to get the data inside if you don't have the PIN?  I'm thinking of password protected folders on Windows which aren't really secure if you have access to the hard drive!

 

 

security
  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    5 years ago

    Thanks for getting back to me here Chris S.14.

     

    Via the desktop app, the files will only sync down to your computer once you've entered the PIN to open the Vault on your computer.

     

    Once you lock the Vault again, the files are removed from your computer, as mentioned in the article linked above.

     

    On Dropbox itself, the files are encrypted in the same way the rest of your files are encrypted.

     

    Does that help to clarify the process for the desktop app?

13 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
Show More
  • aknyc's avatar
    aknyc
    Helpful | Level 6
    4 years ago

    I am a newbie to Vault - just installed it.  After reading the exchange on this thread, I'm a bit confused - what is the reason one would use dropbox vault, especially if one's connected devices (desktops) are adequately physically protected?

     

    In the hypothetical case of a  dropbox user with just one connected device - say a "physically secure" desktop - what is the Vault adding?  An extra layer of protection should the desktop get hacked?  Anything else?

     

    Thanks!

  • Justin15's avatar
    Justin15
    New member | Level 2
    4 years ago

    I agree w/ the other folks in this thread that zero-knowledge encryption is important for me ... just wanted to add that I currently use the free open-source software product 'Cryptomator' to encrypt files within my Dropbox folder to achieve this and it works great.

  • apfund's avatar
    apfund
    Icon for Dropbox Product Manager rankDropbox Product Manager
    2 years ago

    Hi there,

    I know this thread is already quite old. But I wanted to share a quick update with you: 

    We have launched our end-to-end encryption in April. More details can be found here and here. 
    High level overview: 
    You can now add end-to-end encryption to team folders. The functionality is available for our Advanced, Business Plus and Enterprise customers at no additional costs. 

    If there are any questions, please let me know!

About Security and Permissions

Start a discussion in the Dropbox Community forum to get help with your account security and permissions. Find support from Community members.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!