Automated SFTP with PGP encryption and decryption

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. 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 Couchdrop can help. 

SFTP with PGP encryption and decryption

Couchdrop’s Cloud MFT can enable organizations to automatically pull data from a storage location whether it is SFTP or a cloud platform like SharePoint, 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 a one-directional trip you will need the following:

• Your source platform information (SFTP connection details for example)
• Your destination platform (for example SharePoint or a third-party SFTP location)
• PGP public keys (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 product 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 platform to store ingested data / load data into

Next, connect your storage location where you wish to store the data.  For this guide we've chosen SharePoint but you can use any compatible storage. 

Configure automations

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. 

In this example, every day at 11:59 PM the Remote SFTP Server and its subfolders will be checked to see if there are any files. 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 next step is to set up the PGP Encryption.

Couchdrop does not generate PGP keys so you'll need to have these configured for this step. You can also decrypt at this stage instead if needed. 

With Couchdrop automations, you can keep the original, unencrypted file if you need to or have it deleted after the encryption is complete 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. 

When checking the audit log you can see the schedule has operated correctly, by downloading the files from the SFTP server and automatically uploading them to SharePoint encrypted.

You can also see the files have appeared in the destination encrypted with the appended .pgp extension while retaining their name.

For more information and guides see community.couchdrop.io, or you can start your free trial now.