Automatic Encryption Service

Automatic encryption service Anchors any file that has been newly added to or created within an Anchor-protected folder.

Enabling/disabling automatic encryption service

Automatic encryption service can be enabled/disabled from the Anchor admin dashboard under user roles.

1. Login to Anchor admin dashboard

2. Navigate to Settings -> User Roles

3. Select a User role and click on Edit
   

4. Expand User Component Settings

5. You will find the a toggle button to enable/disable Automatic Encryption Service. It is enabled by default for all users.

Adjusting Automatic Encryption Service delay time

Note: This is only available in agent versions 5.3.3 and above

Why do we need a delay?

Without a delay, Anchor’s automatic encryption service may, under certain circumstances, disrupt application workflows. This happens because the service attempts to immediately encrypt any new file it finds in a protected folder. When the encryption service is accessing a file, other applications or processes may fail to access the same file, leading to application faults. For instance, if an SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) application is transferring a file from a remote server to a protected folder and the automatic encryption is enabled, the transfer might be interrupted. The impact varies, depending on how applications create new files within folders. To address this, we have introduced a delay setting for flexible accommodation of specific use cases.

How to change the time delay?

• Navigate to User Component Settings in the desired role
• Enable Automatic Encryption Service if it is not already enabled
• Once enabled, you will see a input field to enter a time delay in milliseconds. This represents the delay between when a new file is created/added in a protected folder and when the automatic encryption occurs on that newly added file.
• For example: if you add a value of 1000, then a newly added file will be anchored after 1 second.
  
• By default the time delay is 0, which means the encryption is immediate

We recommend keeping the delay below 60000 ms (i.e. 1 minute).

Known Limitations

• Automatic encryption service will not Anchor zero-byte files.
• Automatic encryption service might miss Anchoring files in case another application/process is using the file.
• Automatic encryption service will not Anchor placeholder files.
• When you add multiple files simultaneously to a protected folder, the automatic encryption processes them sequentially. The automatic encryption delay will be applied to each file, regardless of the accumulated delay time.