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.

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)
• Your PGP public keys (for encryption) or private key (for decryption)

Connect platform to ingest from

Within the Couchdrop product create a storage connection to your source platform, for this guide we are using a subfolder (/hosted/import) within an SFTP server to ingest the data from.

Configuring an SFTP endpoint within Couchdrop’s Cloud MFT

Connect platform to stored ingested data / load data into

Next connect your storage location where you wish to store the data. We will mount a subfolder (/Customer Imports) within a SharePoint site to store the data.

Connecting SharePoint as a storage endpoint within Couchdrop’s Cloud MFT

Configure Automated Schedule

We will create a schedule to pull data from the SFTP server and then copy it into the SharePoint location encrypted.

From the below you will see that every hour we will pull all files from the SFTP server and copy them over to the SharePoint subfolder encrypted. This schedule could be customized to be more frequent down to 15 minute intervals. Take note of the variable {EXISTING_NAME} this retains the original filename, we’re also appending .pgp at the end of the filename to highlight the file(s) are encrypted.

Configuring the conditions of the scheduled import

Configuring the action to be taken on the files during import

Testing Schedule

You can force the schedule to import the files as a test by selecting “Test” from the menu beside the workflow.

Testing the workflow

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

Audit log of events

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

Files showing in the virtual file system (a reflection of the folder in SharePoint)

For more information or to get started jump across to couchdrop.io or for more guides see community.couchdrop.io