Encryption of client data files

What applications or software do other accountants use?

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I'll first set the scene.

A small one man practice with one employee. Two desktop computers operating Windows 7 Professional with the primary desktop as the server and the secondary computer shared on a network.

In the early days, I used to use a piece of software called TrueCrypt to store client's data files. This works by creating an encrypted volume of space on the hard drive that needs a password to access. All folders and files placed in the volume are encrypted by virtue of the password. However, when we set up the network we found we had problems sharing the volume over the network. Also as the practice grew, any remote backup facility used to take hours to backup the data in the TrueCrypt volume because it sees all the data as being changed every day, and so backs up everything again every day, not just the changes. Also TrueCrypt is no longer supported and so is not a suitable option going forwards.

We have also tried using the built in Windows encryption facility “EFS” but we are also having problems sharing encrypted files across the network. It works intermittently, but often the secondary computer is denied access to the files within encrypted folders. We have tried to set permissions but to no avail. My IT support chap can’t even fathom out what the problem is.

Without it some form of encryption, a hard drive can be removed from a computer and access forcibly obtained even without a start up login password. So what do other small practices use to encrypt client data which avoids the problems listed above?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Replies (5)

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
27th Jan 2018 13:36

I have Windows 10 Professional and encrypt the whole hard drive using Microsoft's Bitlocker (by default it is 128 bit AES). Have you considered upgrading to Windows 10 Professional?

The main advantage with Bitlocker is that you can encrypt the whole drive or partition in one go, rather than having to do individual folders with EFS. I have implemented it on all of my computers and external hard drives.

If your computer has a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip within it - and most computers from the past 7 or 8 years do - then you don't even have to enter the Bitlocker password every time you boot up.

I also encrypt my shared Dropbox folder with BoxCryptor, which means that data stored on the cloud (which includes all of my client and personal files) is encrypted with 256 bit AES that only I have the decryption key for. Dropbox will also perform their own encryption of my already encrypted data.

BoxCryptor might be suitable for you, even if you upload nothing to the cloud, as it encrypts all of the files and folders within a particular location on your hard drive. A virtual drive is created from the encrypted data, which to the user appears as if it is an additional unencrypted drive. BoxCryptor, unlike TrueCrypt, encrypts individual files and folders "on the fly", so your backup software should be able to only backup those files that have changed.

Thanks (2)
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By FrogHappy
27th Jan 2018 17:32

Thanks for your input.

Bitlocker is not available on Windows 7 Professional, so we had considered moving to Windows 10. Do you yourself use Bitlocker across a network without any issues?

I'll have a look at BoxCryptor though. Thanks.

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By Ken Howard
27th Jan 2018 19:22

We use folder lock in combo with dropbox

All client files (and our own) are in the D drive encrypted via folder lock - open folder lock and it's a normal drive freely accessible. Close folder lock and it's not just encrypted, the contents are invisible. We have that loaded on every computer.

To "synchronise" them, we use dropbox, which has all the files stored in the cloud via dropbox, which automatically updates and synchronises each individual computer.

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Elliott Chandler Picture
By elliottchandler
28th Jan 2018 23:19

We use Bitlocker and Azure to manage Windows 10 computers. No issues with file sharing.

Thanks (1)
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By LorraineKent
31st Jan 2018 11:20

We use Bitlocker to encrypt our computer drives, and use Microsoft Office 365 as servers. This syncs our files across devices, with Microsoft using TLS/SSL for data in transit, and Bitlocker for data at rest.

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