ENCFS is an open source software which delivers an encrypted file system in a user space. It does not require any special permissions and uses the FUSE library and Linux kernel to provide a file system interface. ENCFS can also be used to encrypt Dropbox files in Ubuntu and other version of Linux. This might be particularly useful as Dropbox does not encrypt files on its own. In this post I will tell you how to setup an encrypted folder for your Dropbox files using ENCFS.
To get started, open a Terminal window and enter the following Terminal command to install ENCFS:
sudo apt-get install encfs
After ENCFS is installed, create an encrypted volume by entering this command:
encfs ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private
Now download ENCFS (from the download link at the end of this post), extract the file and rename it to e.g. “dropbox encfs” after placing it in the Home Directory. Use the Terminal to navigate to the selected directory and use the following command:
cd ~/gnome-encfs
In case you do not know how to access a directory from the Terminal, check out the below commands for guidance:
- cd ~ (go to my home directory)
- cd ~/Desktop to go to your desktop )
- cd / (go to root directory , the top of everything)
- pwd (tells you were you are)
- cd .go up
- cd . refers to the current directory
Now enter the following commands in the Terminal:
sudo install gnome-encfs /usr/local/bin gnome-encfs -a ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private
That’s all you need to do. Now the files you place in the ~/Private folder will be mirrored under~/Dropbox/.encrypted, synchronized and encrypted. A shortcut for the Private volume will also appear on the desktop, which can be used to directly save files to Dropbox.
Download ENCFS
[via Webupd8]
