CEO Reflections

Data SecurityA few weeks back, there was a lot of noise on the internet related to data security issues in the popular Dropbox file sync solution. Issues like these increase the scrutiny of all cloud solutions, and naturally more questions get asked about "how are you different?".At Egnyte, one basic tenet of our security design is that authentication and encryption must go together. We authenticate every access attempt -- interactive AND non-interactive. We stripe all data by customer, unlike Dropbox which has one storage pool for all customers. Due to this, we may not get the same storage efficiency like Dropbox, but security is more important to us than saving bytes on the storage filers. Further, we hash all object meta-data and therefore do not expose customer meta-data in the storage tier.Our local cloud product authenticates with user credentials and does not use a permanent host key that bypasses user authentication. A simple password change will revoke access to lost/stolen devices.We are working on some interesting encryption technologies which will allow customers to not only encrypt data with their own key but also allow access to their files from all existing interfaces including mobile, without the need to download some special plugin or client application. We will share more details in the next few weeks.