usb-encryption-hd

I just had an unpleasant episode that really reminded me of the need to have some kind of encryption on your thumb drives.

I was leaving a friend’s house, got in my truck and drove home. I unloaded my pockets as usual and discovered–no thumb drive.

I did find the flash drive a few minutes later, by the curb outside my friend’s house. But the whole time I was looking, I was trying to do a mental inventory of what information was on that thumb drive.

Fortunately, I don’t store sensitive client information on my thumb drives. Yet, the idea of someone else finding the drive and being able to freely access the other info on the drive was not a pleasant one.

Lesson: Don’t put personal or client/work passwords or other sensitive data on a thumb drive. If for some reason you do have to have some of that information with you, make sure that information is encrypted.

To keep people from viewing your files if your thumb drive falls into the wrong hands, here are some tools, tutorials and products to help you encrypt your thumb drive.

TrueCrypt

encryption

TrueCrypt (Win XP+/Mac OS X/Linux) is a free, open-source software that can encrypt an entire partition or storage device (like a USB drive).

Once encryption is set for a volume and then the volume is mounted, file encryption/decryption is done on-the-fly–meaning it’s automatic and transparent (ie not a pain in the rear).

Note: TrueCrypt does not currently (as of Oct 11, 2009) support Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. View a full list of TrueCrypt’s limitations.

A Beginner’s Tutorial to TrueCrypt

Adding encryption to your entire USB thumb drive or just a portion (say a directory) is pretty simple.

TrueCrypt Security Precautions

Because of simplicity, the beginner’s tutorial skips some of the more in-depth security details, so it’s a good idea to take a look at the extra things you can do to keep your information even more safe.

What if the System You’re Using Your Thumb Drive With Doesn’t Have TrueCrypt Installed?

Since you’re going to most likely be using your USB with more than one computer, it doesn’t make since to install TrueCrypt on every system.

TrueCrypt fortunately lets you run in ‘portable mode‘–meaning you don’t have to have TrueCrypt installed on the system.

You can read more about portable mode and the various options you have on the TrueCrypt site.

Note: You will need to have admin privileges on the system (OS) you’re running under in order to run TrueCrypt in portable mode.

How to Create the Ultimate Encrypted Flash Drive

A New Morning has a great tutorial that walks you through how to use TrueCrypt specifically with a USB flash drive.

IronKey USB Drive

ironkey-usb-thumb-driveIf you’re serious about security, IronKey is the USB thumb drive for you.

IronKey is a USB thumb drive with built-in 256-bit hardware encryption.

Since encryption is hardware-based, IronKey will also run on pretty much any operating system that will read a USB thumb drive–Windows 2000+, Mac OS 10.4 and Linux (2.6+ kernel).

Also, unlike software-based encryption solutions like TrueCrypt, you don’t have to have administrator rights on the system you’re using IronKey, and there’s no software to install.

It uses internet authentication as well to protect the information and site passwords you exchange when browsing the internet via a portable version of Firefox.

James Bond’s Thumb Drive

I could imagine James Bond using an IronKey–yes, it has self-destruct features built into it.

A stolen or lost drive can be remotely disabled, or a self-destruct can be initiated–erasing all information on the drive and/or physically destroying the drive.

IronKey Personal Demo Video

IronKey Enterprise Demo Video

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Thumb Drive Closer

Remember that if you put sensitive information on a thumb drive that it’s always possible that it’ll get lost or stolen. So make sure your thumb drive (or at least a directory within) is encrypted and secure.

Do you use anything else to secure your USB drives? Share in the comments.

Photo credits: USB Flash Drive by Stephen VanHorn, Abstract View of Data Storage and Abstract View of a Data Sequence by irabbiosi via Shutterstock.

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