evernote attachment files "is it safe"?

[Phil Evernote 0]

I'm new here, and I'm finding Evernote my savior. I can't remember *****, my wife says it's like a blurred photograph... and it's in motion. It's fleeting, I can't remember what McDonald's taste like. It's that bad.

 

I tried evernote a couple years ago. I didn't get it.

 

Then, my wife really got on me about my memory. She wanted me to see a doctor.

 

I googled "how to remember" and this article came up and it talked about Evernote. And it had a video attached to it.

 

I decided to give Evernote another try. And wow, after watching the youtube video I have a whole understanding of Evernote.

 

I love Evernote!

 

In two weeks, I already have over 300 notes!

 

However, however. I'm wondering if my attachments are safe.

 

I have private attachments, such as excel files. I see where the database file are:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases

 

Also, I can see the attachment files:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\Attachments

 

This an example of course

I have a file called "electrical formulas.xlsx.backup" under "Attachments", and this is a private file.

 

I noticed I can copy the file to another location, then drop the *.backup extension, and open the file right up.

 

This scares me.

 

What if this was a really private file with financial information or passwords.

 

The only way someone can open this file is, you must have evernote installed, and then have the Evernote user's name and password to open this file.

 

Is there away to encrypt this file?

 

[Metrodon 2,184]

Evernote doesn't currently support attachment encryption. If you want to do this then you will need to encrypt the file with another solution before attaching it to a note.

You can currently encrypt text in a note, take a look at the knowledge base for instructions.

I would not recommend using Evernote for storing account credentials and passwords, there are far more suitable and secure options available. There's been quite a lot of discussion on here about it that I'm sure you can find with a search.

[DutchPete 247]

I assume you are using the Windows version. By the way, please always state which version you are using when asking a question on the forum.

 

2 points:

• the files in the attachments folder are temporary only, they are created by Evernote when you open a file. At the end of your session you can quite safely delete them because the original files reside within Evernote - see also this thread https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/63501-attachment-versions-change/#entry289982. I have a small batch file that automatically erases all the files in the Attachments sub-folder.
• you can use a small app called Game Protector to "attach" a password to Evernote. I use it myself & it works very well, and is easy to apply.

[John Zeman 29]

FWIW I have my Evernote local files stored in a TrueCrypt container.  If I don't unlock that TrueCrypt container with a password it doesn't exist to Windows as anything other than one huge meaningless file.  Once I've mounted it by entering the password then it magically appears as another hard drive to Windows where I can access my Evernote database, KeePass, and other confidential information.  And of course I also have an Evernote offline local notebook for information that I don't want on the cloud or in my other devices.

TrueCrypt was recently made obsolete since Windows 7 and newer operating systems have support for Bitlocker, Microsoft's version of drive encryption.

[CalS 5,280]

If it's that sensitive an attachment, encrypt the attachment, Evernote or not.  Only put your sensitive notes into a local notebook in Evernote.  Then keep an eye on your machine!

[DutchPete 247]

To delete files from the Attachments folder automatically try this neat little tool: http://cyber-d.blogspot.com/2005/10/cyber-ds-auto-delete-101.html

[Phil Evernote 0]

Hey thanks guys. Great info.