Secure cloud storage of user data for online security app

Project background

Every country, big or small, is impacted by cyber crimes to some extent. Germany is not an exception. Citizens and organizations working in Germany face the wrath of malicious hacks, ransomware attacks, phishing schemes, and more. There is a strong awareness of the cybercrime threat in the country and businesses do their best to stay ahead of the game.

Our client is a German-based company, an award-winning online security app creator, with over 14 million users worldwide. In the initial solution of our client, some crucial modules, in particular, required improvements to synchronize all types of files with cloud services.

The list of required improvements included: 

– Easy-to-use, secure cloud storage to store all types of files from PDF to HD videos;  

– 100% files encryption, backup, synchronization, and data protection;  

– Opportunity to encrypt every single file separately.  

Business needs

Our client was looking for experts with:

– Solid knowledge of cross-platform development for mainstream desktop and mobile operating systems; 

– Experience creating highly competitive software; 

– General knowledge of popular networking protocols including WebDAV, HTTP, and FTP; 

– Solid knowledge of popular cryptographic algorithms. 

Product features

1. Actions with files. Access control, live file edit
2. Actions with folders. Implemented lockers as a standard encrypted folder entity
3. Data protection. Shared devices and data protection
4. Auto backup. Auto backup of newly created/edited files

Solution

The end goal was to have a cross-platform application that can handle file upload and download alongside encryption and decryption.

– Create clean, maintainable, performant, and tested code in C, C++, and Python

– Solve architectural problems with different modules and CMake/conan build system

– Wrap curl and use libSodium, and OpenSSL to handle data encryption and networking

– Use an abstracted library from the Qt application to be an independent and cross-platform module for the logic

Our technology stack

• C++ 20
• CMake
• Conan
• OpenSSL
• libSodium

Key achievements delivered

1. We created an easy-to-use, secure cloud storage solution to store all types of files from PDF to HD video.
2. All the files are encrypted, backed up, synced and protected from data loss.
3. Our development team ensured every single file of the security app is encrypted separately.