Applied Cryptography for Everyone

This article is not a promotional one, even if it may seem like one. It's not an academic one either since I doubt many people here are interested in academic stuff (no offense to any academics among you!). This text is my own experience with a new product I came across recently after listening to a talk at an online conference I checked out recently. So, if you do any office-related tasks and value privacy this is for you, doubly so if you collaborate with other people online.

Nowadays, there are various cloud-based and server-based platforms for office work. Places where you can pull out a word processor or a spreadsheet and do some real work, even if you are out of the office (in some lines of work this is the norm, especially recently). However, with the increase in cybercrime and the threat to privacy on many of these platforms, it's becoming clear that there is a trade-off between convenience and privacy. After all, if you want to get your work done in private, well, you have to do it privately rather than online. Isn't that the case? Perhaps, but not always. Enter secure online places that enable office work without any privacy compromises.

I’ve talked about one such place in a recent episode of my Analytics and Privacy podcast (link), but there are more out there. One that I discovered recently, which I wish I knew before I recorded that podcast episode, is CryptPad. This product from the EU-based company Xwiki seems to have gotten it down when it comes to getting the job done and doing it right (i.e., without any privacy compromises). With end-to-end encryption and the use of open-source software, it manages to offer what seems the lowest-hanging fruit in the SaaS world: a basic office suite that you can run anywhere (even on your phone’s browser) to get office work done while retaining all the PII that may be involved.

CryptPad offers several programs, including a spreadsheet, a rich text editor, an organizer (e.g., a to-do list), a code editor, a slideshow program, a form creator, and a whiteboard program. All the files you create or process are stored in a cloud storage folder called CryptDrive, which is by itself a worthwhile service. You can use all of these programs without registration, though if you want to hold on to your files, it's best to have an account with that company. If the 1 GB storage that's available on the free version of CryptPad isn't enough for you, you can get a paid subscription to that product so that you can enjoy more space as well as some tech support from the XWiki team.

Whether this company takes off remains to be seen, since the fact that I heard about it from some random guy at a conference on the other side of the world doesn't exactly sound promising (especially considering that I'm always on the lookout for programs like this to talk about in my podcast). Perhaps the marketing team isn't there yet, though the blog of that company is pretty good. Also, the documentation is quite solid, and it doesn't take more than a few minutes of playing around with that product to fall in love with it. Perhaps that's the company's marketing strategy: get the word out through word of mouth. In any case, I feel that writing to you all about this is the least I could do to show my appreciation of products like this and the value they stand for. Cheers!