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Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Personal TechWorld
February 2, 2009, 10:10 am
Q & A: Locking a Keychain Drive
By J.D. BiersdorferI have a U.S.B. drive, but am worried about keeping the data on it private. Is it possible to password-protect a U.S.B. drive?
If you already have the drive, an encryption utility program will let you lock it up. Many of these programs are designed for the needs of business users who need to protect sensitive corporate information; check out pgp.com to get an idea of the software offered for sale. Companies that make antivirus and security software may also have drive-encryption options for sale.
If the price is too high, consider shareware from a reputable site or a free open-source solution like TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt, with versions available to download for Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X and Linux, can encrypt the entire U.S.B. drive. Although some open-source software projects tend to get a little technical for new users, the TrueCrypt site has an illustrated beginner’s tutorial and a lengthy section devoted to Frequently Asked Questions.
If you are shopping for a new U.S.B. drive, several companies make models that have security measures built right in. Kingston, Verbatim and SanDisk all have their own variations on the secure U.S.B. drive; prices will probably be higher than those for regular U.S.B. drives. For the deeply security-minded, IronKey even makes waterproof, tamperproof U.S.B. drives with military-grade encryption software; the 1-gigabyte “personal” model costs $79.
ComputerWorld reviewed seven different brands of secure U.S.B. drives last year and has a head-to-head assessment if you want some in-depth opinions
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2 comments:
I have a SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise which is both encrypted and password protected, it self-destructs after too many wrong password attempts, makes me feel extra secure. It also works on a Mac! It's great.
Yep, I agree. As an avid traveler, I came across a secure USB drive that is perfect for my needs. The big advantage of this secure USB is that it has remote software control. This means that if you lose it, you can destroy all the information on it and not worry about your data being compromised.
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