In the next release of Jungle Disk, which will be available soon, we’ve decided to remove the option to encrypt files using your AWS Secret Key as the encryption key, which was previously the default option. You’ll still be able to select a custom key for encryption (and if you really want, you can just use your AWS Secret Key as the custom key). The reason for this change is explained below.
When Jungle Disk was first released, we wanted to offer users the ability to encrypt their files for their privacy and protection – especially since the data is sent over the public Internet. We offered users a choice of three options – don’t encrypt my files, encrypt my files using my AWS Secret Key, and encrypt my files using a personal (custom) key. The default option was to use the AWS Secret Key, which we felt struck a good balance between protecting the user’s data when sent over the Internet and reducing the risk of the user’s losing / forgetting their encryption key and thus losing their data (and probably not realizing it until they need to restore it).
However, since then several things have changed. First, Jungle Disk now supports SSL for all file transfers and enables it by default. This ensures that your data cannot be snooped or intercepted when sent over the Internet, even if the files themselves are not encrypted. Second, Amazon now allows you to change your AWS Secret Key. While this is a good thing, it can have unintended consequences for users who don’t realize that their AWS Secret Key is also their encryption key. We’ve posted a reminder in several places about this issue, but we can’t ensure that users will keep their old key when changing keys, and thus using the AWS Secret Key for encryption is no longer a good default option.
As of 1.46 Jungle Disk has just two encryption options – don’t encrypt my files (although they will still be encrypted via SSL for transmission to Amazon), or encrypt my files using a custom key (i.e. password). For users who want their files stored encrypted we recommend you switch to using a custom key, but make sure you keep a copy of your key in a safe location to ensure you never lose or forget it.
For existing Jungle Disk users, if you have files encrypted using your AWS Secret Key (the default setting) they will not change, but new files uploaded will be encrypted based on the new settings. You still need to remember to keep a copy of your previous AWS Secret Key should you ever change it in the future otherwise you may not be able to access your encrypted files. Nothing will change for users who already have a custom key or who have encryption disabled.
On a somewhat related note, we’ve finally published a full manual for Jungle Disk, explaining all the options and menu items. We resisted for a while, figuring that any software that needs a manual is probably too complex, but it’s important to keep our growing list of features well documented even as we strive to make the product easier to use. The manual actually covers the 1.46 release of the software, so you may see a few things mentioned that aren’t in the current release. Consider it a sneak peek at upcoming features!
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