Can I encrypt my OneNote 2013 notebooks on SkyDrive?

Question

I'm a big fan of OneNote 2013 including the sync function, however I have privacy concerns using Microsoft's Skydrive cloud. Is there a way I can encrypt my notebooks before they are sent to the Skydrive server / after they are received from the Skydrive server, having the same sync comfort as without encryption?

For my files I'm using BoxCryptor, however I don't think it's possible to use it with the OneNote notebooks without losing syncing comfort.

Thanks for any advise!

Solution 1

Messing with sync could lead to disaster IMO. I currently use password-protected section this way which I think can be applied to BoxCryptor too:

For example, my bank details in a page:

ABC Bank
--------------
Address
tel
website

[[account number & password]]  <-- link to a notebook section called 'Encrypted'

The idea is: most of your notes are probably not sensitive data. The notebook section called 'Encrypted' keeps all the sensitive data from various notebooks. Then I password-protect that section. This way most (non-sensitive) notes are searchable without me typing the password each time, you only type the password when you need to access sensitive information.

To apply this to BoxCryptor, you could encrypt only ONE notebook which contains the sensitive data. While your other notebooks are sync'd using normal OneNote protocol. This way you can run OneNote on multiple computers at the same time too.

Solution 2

Well, you'd have to change the whole setup a little.

Instead of setting the SkyDrive sync in OneNote you let the SkyDrive client sync encrypted files to Microsoft's cloud. This will let you store your notes securely in the cloud but it will also affect the usability of the program.

Comments

[Joe]

Thanks - I guess that means the following regarding syncing comfort: You cannot edit a notebook with two clients at the same time having their differences synced, but you need to save and close the notebook on one side, then wait until it's synced and then open the notebook on the other side - correct?

[megamorf]

Do you mean editing a notebook residing in Microsoft's SkyDrive or a on a network share?

[Joe]

I mean on SkyDrive.

[ytk]

@WarrenP OneNote 2016 still has this feature: support.office.com/en-in/article/…

[Warren P]

My bad. I misunderstood the docs. Deleted comment.