Question about encrypted files. How to decrypt them

Question

Question about Encryption / Decryption 
 Dear All, 
 The Company I was working for until December 2018 used Sophos Safeguard Encryption. 
 Somehow, the external hard drive that I used to store my private photos and documents has been encrypted as well and I not able to open any of the data that went through my ex-company computer. 
 I talked to the IT Specialists from the Company and the told me, that since my company profile does not exist anymore (they delete everything right after you quit) and my ex-laptop has been already formatted, they would not be in the position to free my files from the encryption. 
 Therefore, I am posting this. Are there any possibilities to recover the files? At least, all the digital pictures saved in the drive since 2002. 
 I would really appreciate someone to help me with this issue. 
 Thank you very much in advance 
 Best Regards 
 Carlos Valdecantos

Jasmin · Answer

Hi Carlos Valdecantos 
 Sorry to hear that most of your private data, on your hard drive, are encrypted through safeguard. 
 Safeguard is on-premise based software which generates keys, certificates on their local database. It never gives that information to the Sophos as well. 
 If your previous company is no more using Safeguard, then those pieces of information might not be available to you or your previous companies. 
 Because of that, your encrypted will not be decrypted in any way.

Funkey · Answer

Hi Carlos, 
 if we are talking about encrypted files (and not an encrypted harddrive), your ex-company might still be able to help you out. 
 File encryption keys are never deleted (even if your user and the computer account are gone). So technically, the "old" key could be assigned to another user who could then access and decrypt your files. 
 However, depending on the security standards of the company, they might not allow having an external device from an ex-colleague attached to a company system (which should be totally understandable). 
 Cheers 
 Michael