Box's private security key helps keep spying eyes off your files
Box already encrypts the files you store in its cloud, but it also stores the necessary security key on its own servers. If a government wants to look at your data, it can theoretically order Box to hand over the key and expose all your sensitive info without your knowledge. The company just unveiled a clever way to fight these kinds of intrusions, though. It has a new paid option, Enterprise Key Management, that gives the corporate crowd a secondary key held on a separate, privately rented device. If you're using EKM, the only way to access your files is to have full use of both keys -- hackers and snoops can't look at your company's files without giving you a clue that something's up.
The service is in beta right now, and it'll take months before it's available to many customers. There's no mention of a personal version, either. However, EKM could still give Box an edge in countries that don't trust the US following revelations about the NSA's mass surveillance programs. Box is effectively promising that it won't turn against its clients at a moment's notice, and that even determined attackers would have to go out of their way to break in.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew]
