The ability to automatically send and receive data to and from an SFTP server is becoming more prevalent, especially with the uptake of communication across health, finance, and logistics in this space. With many MFT platforms getting compromised, there's been a push towards adding more protections to files, such as by requiring all files to use PGP encryption.
Adding the requirement to have files encrypted and decrypted with PGP can add complexity, especially when you want the process to be fully automated and use your own cloud storage, such as SharePoint, Box, or block storage such as Amazon S3 or Azure. But with Couchdrop, it only takes a few minutes to get going.
SFTP with PGP encryption and decryption
Couchdrop’s Cloud MFT can enable organizations to automatically pull data from a storage location, encrypt the data with PGP, and automatically send it to a remote location or ingest it themselves via SFTP or another cloud. The reverse can also be configured to automate the entire file exchange process.
To use Couchdrop MFT for PGP encryption and decryption, you'll need a few things first:
- Your source platform information (platform credentials or SFTP connection details, for example)
- Your destination platform (for exampl,e SharePoint or a third-party SFTP location)
- A PGP public key (for encryption) or private key (for decryption)
Once you have those, the steps for automated PGP encryption/decryption with Couchdrop are to connect the platform to ingest from, connect the platform to store the ingested data, and configure automations for encryption or decryption.
Connect the platform to ingest from
You'll need to have a Couchdrop account before starting. If you don't have one, you can register for a free trial, and you'll have 14 days to try Couchdrop without a credit card so you can see if it's right for your use case.
Once registered, within the Couchdrop platform, create a storage connection to your source platform. Couchdrop connects to over 30 storage platforms including SharePoint, Google Workspace, Dropbox, and more, including other SFTP servers.
Connect the platform to store/load into
Next, connect your storage location where you wish to store the data. This can be on Couchdrop's hosted storage itself, but can also be on any of the compatible storage platforms directly.
Once your platforms are connected, the next step is to create a workflow to automate the PGP encryption or decryption process.
Setting up PGP Encryption in Couchdrop
Couchdrop does not generate PGP keys so you'll need to have these configured before you can create the automation. Admins will need to add the keys in the Encryption Keys section of the Admin panel, or you can add them while building the automation and specifying a PGP Encrypt or PGP Decrypt action.
Configure automations
Couchdrop uses PGP Encryption as part of automated workflows, so you'll need to configure an automation to encrypt/decrypt. For this example, we want to add PGP encryption to a file immediately as it's ingested, so we'll set up a Transfer Automation.
For example, suppose that every day at 11:59 PM, you want to check a Remote SFTP Server and its subfolders for new files. You can schedule a transfer automation to poll the location and move any files that are in the directory. Frequency can be as low as every 5 minutes, all the way up to manual, where you run the automation as needed from the automations list.
The PGP decryption and encryption process creates a copy of the file, one encrypted and one unencrypted. While you can keep the original file if you'd like, you can also add a step to have it deleted after the encryption/decryption process with an additional action.
Now your files can be encrypted or decrypted automatically as they're moved between your storage platforms.
Testing automations
You'll likely want to test the automation to ensure it's working as expected, but if your schedule is to do this once a month it would be a long wait. Instead of switching the time or frequency, you can run the automation manually from the automation menu.
After testing the automation, you can check that the file is in the right location, but that might not be possible if you're sending it to an external party, for instance. In these cases, you can simply Couchdrop's audit logs, which keep track of all activity in the platform.
Duplicating automations
If you work with several partners that employ PGP encryption, you can speed up creating new workflows by duplicating them. After building and testing a PGP automation, click the three dots menu by your automation in the Automation list and choose Duplicate. Then make changes to the relevant directories etc, and you're good to go.
Choose Couchdrop for SFTP with PGP encryption
Couchdrop makes encrypting and decrypting with PGP easy thanks to built-in key management and a simple, guided configuration process. To try Couchdrop and see how easy it is to automate SFTP with PGP encryption, you can get instant access with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Register now to get started.