Google's Cloud Storage service now
automatically encrypts all its customer data for free, the company said Thursday.
The encryption has "no visible performance impact," Google Cloud Storage's product manager, Dave Barth, wrote in a blog post. "If you require encryption for your data, this functionality frees you from the hassle and risk of managing your own encryption and decryption keys," he said.
New files added to Cloud Storage will be encrypted as they're uploaded and before they're saved to a drive. Older files will be migrated "in the coming months," Barth said. This is part of Google's emphasis on "
forward secrecy," which many Internet companies have
yet to adopt.
