Feature Request - Attachment encryption

[Seccie 0]

Dear Evernote,

 

I have been a happy user for a couple years now and I cannot imagine having to live without Evernote.

I noticed you can encrypt your notes, but for some reason you cannot encrypt your attachments.

I travel quite frequently and I would love as a premium user to be able to encrypt my attachments as well.

I already contacted support and they pointed me here.

 

To extra protect my data I already enabled two-way verification.

Having the ability to encrypt my attachments would add an extra security layer. 

 

 

Hope you pick this one up and help me out.

 

Kind regards, 

 

Richard 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

If the attachment is a PDF file, you can encrypt using Acrobat (or 3rd party tools), and then attach to an Evernote Note.

 

I just tested this, and it very cool.  In both EN Mac and EN iPhone EN asks for the PDF password to open/display.

We talked about this a couple years ago

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/28876-encrypting-documents/?p=156729

As I mentioned back then, Evernote didn't support 256-bit encryption. As of 2013 it still didn't, but I haven't tested it recently. I think Preview only does 128-bit.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Is Evernote able to still search the encrypted PDF?  Does it show up in search results if encrypted?

There wouldn't be any point in encrypting it if it could! You have the password. Evernote does not.

[Scopo 3]

Is Evernote able to still search the encrypted PDF?  Does it show up in search results if encrypted?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Blurry as ever, I am afraid. See the screenshots in the link: Adobe Reader and Adobe Pro (10.1.12) on an MBPr (15" 10.9.4). I'd strongly recommend no one purchase Adobe 10. It doesn't age well, and Adobe is apparently unwilling to fix the resolution problems.

 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s74/sh/f78e4baf-d27f-4f49-ba25-da90d593f4ca/5171b730d617fb758eba3598feff71e0

 

 

That's very strange.  I wonder why Acrobat X is crisp & clear on my MacBook Pro 15-in Retina, but yours?

 

I guess we need a tie-breaker.  Anyone else out there running Acrobat X on a MBP-15R?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

 

as for adobe ten, if you are on a retina-mac, it will be almost unbearably blurry and unpleasant. it is a daily annoyance, and i am too cheap to move up to acrobat eleven, because eleven has nothing to offer me besides a retina-compatible view. in fact, the ocr (for japanese) was a tiny bit worse! i'm holding out for acrobat twelve. in the meantime, i open in reader, preview, or skim and do editing of pdfs in pro.

 

Acrobat 10.1.10 on Mac OS 10.9.4 (Mav) on my MBP-15R looks fine to me.  Crystal clear.

 

 

Blurry as ever, I am afraid. See the screenshots in the link: Adobe Reader and Adobe Pro (10.1.12) on an MBPr (15" 10.9.4). I'd strongly recommend no one purchase Adobe 10. It doesn't age well, and Adobe is apparently unwilling to fix the resolution problems.

 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s74/sh/f78e4baf-d27f-4f49-ba25-da90d593f4ca/5171b730d617fb758eba3598feff71e0

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

as for adobe ten, if you are on a retina-mac, it will be almost unbearably blurry and unpleasant. it is a daily annoyance, and i am too cheap to move up to acrobat eleven, because eleven has nothing to offer me besides a retina-compatible view. in fact, the ocr (for japanese) was a tiny bit worse! i'm holding out for acrobat twelve. in the meantime, i open in reader, preview, or skim and do editing of pdfs in pro.

 

Acrobat 10.1.10 on Mac OS 10.9.4 (Mav) on my MBP-15R looks fine to me.  Crystal clear.

Thanks for checking. That is very odd. I re-installed my OS last month, so I am still on a trial version of 11 right now, but will install 10 next week to see. Maybe I needed updates? Anyhow, good news, so I won't complain!

As for iOS, I'm sorry to hear that I was correct. If it happens, you can always "open in" adobe reader. It handles 256-bit just fine. It's these little hiccups that are un-documented, and cause really ugly things to happen if users don't know about them. Obviously, you can only learn some through trial and error, esp. when new / missing features go unannounced. This is neither good for Evernote nor its users. I've had too many of these unexpected discoveries at inopportune times. Longtime members of this forum will recall that's why I've been mirroring my account in other apps for some time -- just in case. It's less than ideal, and undermines the whole point of pointing everything in Evernote.

Long story short: I'd like to see documentation encrypted notebooks, better support for "power users" (numbers, batch operations, etc. on iOS), and selective sync (on the desktop).

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

as for adobe ten, if you are on a retina-mac, it will be almost unbearably blurry and unpleasant. it is a daily annoyance, and i am too cheap to move up to acrobat eleven, because eleven has nothing to offer me besides a retina-compatible view. in fact, the ocr (for japanese) was a tiny bit worse! i'm holding out for acrobat twelve. in the meantime, i open in reader, preview, or skim and do editing of pdfs in pro.

 

Acrobat 10.1.10 on Mac OS 10.9.4 (Mav) on my MBP-15R looks fine to me.  Crystal clear.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

i was talking about adobe acrobat as well. that's how i encrypt my pdfs. i think they first implemented 256-bit in version nine or ten of acrobat pro. the problem used to be that i would encrypt, upload into pdf, try to open in evernote, and it would fail. can you confirm that 256-bit works in evernote on ios now?

 

 

Well, it's a good news, bad news story.

 

I am able to apply 256-bit encryption to the PDF using Acrobat X Mac.

I can attach to a Note in EN Mac 5.5.2

I can open the PDF from EN by double-clicking, which evokes Acrobat, which asks for the PW.

 

BUT, EN Mac can NOT display the PDF inline.  It reports the PW as being "incorrect".

 

And, I can NOT open the PDF in EN iPhone 7.4.2.  The screen shakes when I enter the PW, apparently meaning that the PW is incorrect.

 

So, you are right (as usual).       Neither EN Mac nor EN iOS fully support PDFs with 256-bit encryption.   

I suspect it is the PDF readers that EN is using on both platforms.

When I have time, I'll try 128-bit encryption -- that's probably good enough for many use cases.

 

I'm going to have to check the problem of display on a retina display.  I've got a MacBook Pro 15-in Retina.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

yes. of course i realize that evernote does not encrypt pdfs

i was talking about adobe acrobat as well. that's how i encrypt my pdfs. i think they first implemented 256-bit in version nine or ten of acrobat pro. the problem used to be that i would encrypt, upload into pdf, try to open in evernote, and it would fail. can you confirm that 256-bit works in evernote on ios now?

as for adobe ten, if you are on a retina-mac, it will be almost unbearably blurry and unpleasant. it is a daily annoyance, and i am too cheap to move up to acrobat eleven, because eleven has nothing to offer me besides a retina-compatible view. in fact, the ocr (for japanese) was a tiny bit worse! i'm holding out for acrobat twelve. in the meantime, i open in reader, preview, or skim and do editing of pdfs in pro.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

@Seccie:  Do a google on "PDF tools/editors" and I'm sure you'l find lots of choices.

 

Also now that Acrobat XI is out, you can probably find some great deals on Acrobat X, which is what I use.

If you are a student with valid student ID, you can get it really cheap.

[Seccie 0]

So this feature has still not been implemented?

As for windows desktop which program would you recommend?

I saw acrobat pro earlier, but it comes with a hefty price and I don't have that amount of money sitting on a pile.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

 

If the attachment is a PDF file, you can encrypt using Acrobat (or 3rd party tools), and then attach to an Evernote Note.

 

I just tested this, and it very cool.  In both EN Mac and EN iPhone EN asks for the PDF password to open/display.

We talked about this a couple years ago

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/28876-encrypting-documents/?p=156729

As I mentioned back then, Evernote didn't support 256-bit encryption. As of 2013 it still didn't, but I haven't tested it recently. I think Preview only does 128-bit.

 

 

GM, I'm talking about encrypting the PDF using Adobe Acrobat X, not using Evernote.

Acrobat X supports 256-bit encryption:

 

From Adobe.com Securing Documents with Passwords:

 

 

Compatibility

  Sets the type of encryption for opening a password-protected document. If you choose Acrobat 3.0 And Later (PDF 1.3) option, a low-encryption-level security (40-bit RC4) is used. If you choose Acrobat 5.0 And Later (PDF 1.4) or Acrobat 6.0 And Later (PDF 1.5), a high encryption level (128‑bit RC4) is used. Choosing Acrobat 7.0 And Later (PDF 1.6) encrypts the document using the AES encryption algorithm with a 128-bit key size.   Acrobat X And Later (PDF 1.7) encrypts the document using 256-bit AES.

Note: Select Acrobat X And Later to apply 256-bit AES encryption to Acrobat 8 and 9 documents.

[Adjusting 276]

On the Mac, Preview works pretty well:

 

- File->Export as PDF…

- Click the Show Details button

- Click the Encrypt checkbox

- Type a password twice

- Click the Save Button

[Seccie 0]

I tried a couple 3rd party programs, but I can't find a reliant one other than reader pro...

Any suggestions? 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

If the attachment is a PDF file, you can encrypt using Acrobat (or 3rd party tools), and then attach to an Evernote Note.

 

I just tested this, and it very cool.  In both EN Mac and EN iPhone EN asks for the PDF password to open/display.

 

EN Mac Screenshot:

 

 

EN iPhone Screen Shot:

 

That's slick actually! Thanks for sharing!

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

If the attachment is a PDF file, you can encrypt using Acrobat (or 3rd party tools), and then attach to an Evernote Note.

 

I just tested this, and it very cool.  In both EN Mac and EN iPhone EN asks for the PDF password to open/display.

 

EN Mac Screenshot:

 

 

EN iPhone Screen Shot:

 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

On iOS you are, as you note, pretty much hamstrung without official support from Evernote. 
 

Putting mobile clients aside, there's very little issue with the desktop. On the mac, it is VERY easy to put ANY file you'd like in an encrypted disk image and then attach the disk image. Opening the file is as easy as double clicking the attached encrypted disk image. This would be inaccessible on a mobile device, but on any desktop, it's pretty painless. Granted, the contents to this encrypted attachment cannot be indexed, and thus cannot be searched by you but proper title and tags should keep that from being an issue. 

 

 

But, alas, that doesn't do much for Evernote on mobile and thus doesn't really help at all for your use case! I think this will be a relatively persistent problem, and not just for Evernote, and one that has deeper roots than just encrypting attachments and mobile applications. Much more robust encryption features are needed. 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

 

If you need Cloud storage with high security/encryption for your files, you may want to consider Wuala.  They offer apps for Win, Mac, iOS, and Android.

I would prefer to use one service which I am already paying for. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Edit: I selected iOS as system but this of course also counts for the desktop clients on MAC and Windows. 

 

 

So would I.  

 

We've been requesting and pleading Evernote for years to provide better security, better encryption, but they have either made excuse after excuse, or just ignored us.

 

Given the public's growing concern about security and privacy in the Cloud, it's only a matter of time before all Cloud-based services will have to provide high encryption, like those that use Zero Knowledge Keys.  So, Evernote will have to provide this eventually, but it doesn't look like any time in the near future.

[Seccie 0]

If you need Cloud storage with high security/encryption for your files, you may want to consider Wuala.  They offer apps for Win, Mac, iOS, and Android.

I would prefer to use one service which I am already paying for. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Edit: I selected iOS as system but this of course also counts for the desktop clients on MAC and Windows. 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

If you need Cloud storage with high security/encryption for your files, you may want to consider Wuala.  They offer apps for Win, Mac, iOS, and Android.

[Seccie 0]

Native support and overall improvements to encryption would be amazing!

Currently, the possibilities on a mobile device for encrypting are limited. However, there's  nothing stopping you from using your favourite encryption tool to encrypt the file BEFORE you attach it to Evernote. Granted, that will pose a problem in terms of decrypting on your mobile device. Most encryption tools don't have a corresponding mobile application (and even if they did it would still be a real pain on an iOS device given the limited cross-app communication). 

 

Scott,

 

That is exactly my problem. I prefer to have my travel documents stored in Evernote in case something unforeseen happens 

I tried other encryption apps, but I stumbled upon the problem you already explained in your response.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Native support and overall improvements to encryption would be amazing!

Currently, the possibilities on a mobile device for encrypting are limited. However, there's  nothing stopping you from using your favourite encryption tool to encrypt the file BEFORE you attach it to Evernote. Granted, that will pose a problem in terms of decrypting on your mobile device. Most encryption tools don't have a corresponding mobile application (and even if they did it would still be a real pain on an iOS device given the limited cross-app communication).