Synology drive key software#

Encrypted folders are part of that rich feature set. Synology is a great consumer/SMB storage provider that provides a rich set of features. If you lose both and the folder becomes unmounted, then there is no way to mount (i.e., decrypt) the folder nor get your data out of the folder. If you lose the encryption key, then you lose access to the encrypted folder: During encryption, you specify an encryption key (i.e., passphrase) and at the end of the process, get an encryption key (i.e., file) for safekeeping.There is a maximum character limit: For English, the limit is 143, while for Asian, the limit is 43 characters.Encrypted folders are not available via NFS: Depending on the use-case, this can be a significant issue - more on this in a future post.Do not expect maximum performance numbers on encrypted folders. Encrypted folders will have reduced performance: Security comes with a price, and part of that price is the overhead of encrypting/decrypting data.This does limit some functionality depending on your particular use-cases.

Encrypted folders do not support file-level backups: You can either back up the entire folder or nothing.

A folder must be created with encryption initially: It is not possible to convert an existing folder into an encrypted folder or an encrypted folder into a regular folder.

Creating encrypted folders requires administration permissions: In the consumer market, I do not foresee this being a big issue, but in the SMB, it could be a potential pain point.Without this information, you may run into a variety of issues along the way. When it comes to encrypted folders on Synology, there are several things you need to know BEFORE you start. This is a significant value add for everyone. If someone steals or gets access to the physical drives, they cannot access the data: While stealing is unlikely, giving up your physical drive is possible, like when the drive breaks and you have to replace it.If you do not mount encrypted folders on startup, then if someone physically steals your Synology, your data is protected: An unlikely scenario for many, but not out of the realm of possibility.Unless you are an administrator user, you cannot access encrypted folders without the encryption key: For consumer users who typically have a single administrator user, this is a great benefit.So what does having encryption at rest buy you? Here are a few things: Clearly, data at rest is not the only place you need to be concerned with when it comes to protecting your data, but it is an important foundation on which other security features can be built - more on this in a future post. As the name implies, this feature provides encryption at rest. One such feature that Synology provides is encrypted folders. With more and more news coming out about security breaches, you really need as many security features at your disposal as possible. There is a ton of competition in the consumer / SMB storage market, but Synology is easily one of the if not the top providers in the market today. While I have not blogged much about Synology, I have been using Synology products for years now, and I have become quite a fan. I want to talk about Synology encrypted folders and what you need to know in this post. One great feature is the ability to create encrypted folders.

Synology drive key software#

Synology offers a variety of solid storage systems and comes with software that offers a wide variety of features.