Part 6: Staying Secure with Evernote

This is another wonderful guest post written by Justin Stallings. For more information about Evernote or Justin’s previous posts see below.

 A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine had his home broken into.  The important part is that he and his family were not in harm’s way and are safe.  Unfortunately, however, some items were taken from his home–including his laptop.  When that happened, it got me thinking about my own computer, tablet, and mobile device and what I should do if something like that should happen to me.

Not only have I thought about security of my devices themselves, I have also thought about security with my Evernote account.  Evernote is installed on my desktop, smartphone, and my tablet.  Because I have the ease of access with Evernote on all my devices, I also considered what should happen to my Evernote account should one of my devices were stolen.  Fortunately for Evernote users, there are several ways to have more security with your Evernote account.

What does Evernote say about security?

Here’s Evernote’s official statement regarding security:

Evernote is committed to protecting the security of your information and takes reasonable precautions to protect it. However, Internet data transmissions, whether wired or wireless, cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure and as a result we cannot ensure the security of information you transmit to us; accordingly, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your data transmission, we make all commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems:

  • Your Evernote password is protected by encryption and only you have access to it;
  • Your personal information and data stored in our systems is protected by various physical, electronic and procedural safeguards. It is housed in a secure facility and Evernote restricts physical and network access to this facility to select trained staff and regularly evaluates its technologies, facilities, procedures and potential risks to maintain the security and privacy of our users’ data. As a rule, Evernote employees do not monitor or view your personal information or content stored in the Evernote service, but it may be viewed if we learn that our Terms of Service may have been violated and confirmation is required, or we otherwise determine that we have an obligation to review it; and
  • Certain Evernote services support the use of standard SSL encryption to protect data transmissions. However, this is not a guarantee that such data transmissions cannot be accessed, altered or deleted due to firewall or other security software failures.

If Evernote learns of a security system breach we may attempt to notify you and provide information on protective steps, if available, through the e-mail address that you supplied during registration or posting a notice on our web site. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive such notices in writing.  

Source: evernote.com

Safety tips with Evernote Desktop

I do a majority of my work on my laptop–everything from blogging, researching on the web, and organizing my resources in my Evernote account.  For quick and easy access, I have the Evernote Desktop installed on my PC.  All I have to do is click on the Evernote icon on my desktop and I’m in.  With that being said, however, if someone were to steal my laptop it would be that easy for them to access my Evernote account (besides of course if they were somehow able to get passed my Windows log-in password).  Here are some safe practices I use with my Evernote Desktop:

1.  Make “signing out” a habit

Is it a pain in the rear to sign into your Evernote account every time you boot up your computer?  Sure.  However, consider this:  Is it more of a pain to sign in your account every time or having someone access your Evernote account and you trying to prevent as little as damage as possible by changing your password and other potent data?  Once you sign out of your Evernote account, you’ll be more secure than just staying signed in the entire time:

If someone steals your computer, don’t make it easier on them by just letting them into your Evernote account with no effort at all.  By not selecting the “stay signed in” option, it makes whoever steals your computer put in your user id and password (see the bottom of this post for tips on how to create a strong password).

Again, this makes things a lot less easy for you to sign in to your account–but anything that’s easy for you is equally easy for for any would-be thieves out there as well.

2.  How to encrypt sensitive data in a Evernote note

We talk a lot these days about going digital in the classroom–everything from assessments, projects, and record keeping.  For educators, some might keep sensitive student data (such as contact information or student ID numbers) in the “cloud” for access to wherever they are at.  The one thing that should be discussed and considered is how safe that data will be once you place it in the online database.  With Evernote, you can add a 2nd level of security to any note data by “encrypting” it in the Evernote note.  Here’s what it would look like and how to do it:

Example of text in a Evernote note:

With this feature in Evernote, encrypting sensitive data might be something you would want to consider.  As in this example, should you choose to use Evernote to keep information about your students, you can encrypt it to make sure that if someone is able to hack into your Evernote account they will have to also hack into the encrypted information.

 

Example of how to select data you want to encrypt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example of creating a encryption password in Evernote:

As with any password, you’ll want to create a strong password for your encryption password as well.  Be sure to check out the end of this post for more information on how to create strong passwords.

(Image credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET “How to encrypt selected text in Evernote“)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How data encryption looks once you are done:

Once you are done, that data will now be “encrypted” for more security.  As you can see in this image, the data is no longer visible just by signing into your Evernote account–you will be required to enter your encryption password to access that data as well.  You can do that by double-clicking the encrypted image and it will then prompt you to enter in your password to get access to it.

Safety tips for your mobile device

Safety while on your mobile device is something that should be practiced just as much as safety while on a computer.  Fortunately, Evernote also takes safety on mobile devices into consideration by allowing you to set up a “pin lock” on your Evernote account.  It is important to note, however, that this is a “premium” feature.  Here’s a post on what you’ll get with Evernote premium, “Ten reasons to go premium“.

Here’s an example of what the “pin lock” feature looks like on Android.  Once you go to the Evernote app, you’ll be prompted to enter in your pin number in order to access your account.  This really is a excellent feature to use for security on your phone, should you happen to lose your phone or if it gets stolen.  You can enable this feature on the Evernote app by going to settings—–>other options–>setup pin lock (Android).  You can do the same thing on your tablet or Ipad should you choose to have that 2nd level of security as well.

Other Security Resources

Though the main purpose of this post is to discuss security with Evernote, it is also important to emphasize the importance of practicing good security measures when you are using your computer and when you are connected to the internet.  Here are some resources that might give you some ideas on how to stay secure on your computer and electronic devices, as well as on Evernote:

Evernote

Evernote privacy policy

Evernote’s Three Laws of Data Protection

Freetech4teachers.com:

Three simple tools for creating strong passwords

Resources for Safer Internet Day

Cell Phone Security

Android security

Iphone security

Educationaltechnologyguy.com

E-safety resources

Please see my other posts in this series, Evernote for the Social Studies:

Part 1: Evernote for the Social Studies: What is Evernote

Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote in the History Class

Part 3: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Skitch

Part 4: Evernote for the Social Studies: Lesson Planning with Evernote

Part 5: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Study Blue

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

 

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2 Comments
  1. Nice post.

    IMO the best way to secure data on an iPhone or iPad is to use an aggressive auto-lock setting and an unlock password (with the proper tools, a 4-digit PINs can be bypassed in 20 minutes).

    But I agree 100% that stuff that needs to be securely stored and synced does not belong in Evernote. If you’re already a 1Password or LastPass user, Secure Notes are a great solution. As an enthusiastic user of both products, I would favor 1Password for notes that are just for me, and LastPass for stuff that might need to be shared securely with others.

  2. Pingback: Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 05/28/2013 | cika

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