Dropbox, Google Drive get in-browser security boost through BoxCryptor plugin

Here’s one for business or otherwise privacy-hungry users of Chrome: BoxCryptor has released an experimental plugin that makes it possible to encrypt and decrypt files stored in Dropbox and Google Drive without needing to fiddle around with desktop apps.

Cloud storage services are pretty secure but, as Dropbox ably demonstrated earlier this year, a bit of extra client-side encryption is a good idea if you’re dealing with sensitive information. Germany-based BoxCryptor covers quite a range of platforms, including Windows, Windows RT, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, but this is the first time it’s gone in-browser.

According to BoxCryptor CEO Andrea Wittek, the benefit of that would become apparent if you happen to want to download and decrypt something using someone else’s machine. I can also see the feature coming in handy for Chrome OS business users, down the line at least.