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3 ways to keep sensitive files encrypted on a flash drive or external hard drive
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John wants a way to encrypt files that are stored on a flash drive or external hard drive.
Flash drives are easy to lose. And anything lost can fall into the wrong
hands. So if you’re carrying around sensitive information in your
pocket, you need to make sure those files are encrypted.
Here are three possible solutions:
Buy an encrypted drive
You can buy a flash drive with built-in encryption, such as the DataTraveler Locker+ G3.
When you plug the Locker+ in, it comes up as a 13MB, read-only drive.
But once you launch the program file on that drive and enter the
password that you previously setup, another drive opens up with all the
storage space you paid for. That drive, of course, is inaccessible
without the password. The software runs off the drive, and it can be
used on multiple computers and operating systems.
But I strongly recommend against using this drive’s optional cloud
backup feature. It uses Dropbox, OneDrive, or whichever cloud service
you pick, which at first glance seems like a nice convenience. But this
feature uploads the files without its own encryption. That means you’re
trusting your sensitive files to the encryption capabilities of Dropbox
and similar services, and they aren’t all that secure. Find another way
to backup these files—preferably one where you can can control the
encryption.
The DataTraveler Locker+ G3 starts at about $15 for the 8GB drive, and we've looked at other encrypted USB drives as well.
Install specialized software on your drive
If you already have a drive you want to use, consider installing ENC Security Systems’ EncryptStick. You have to install EncryptStick onto your main PC, but it runs as a portable program on any other computer.
EncryptStick won’t let you access your encrypted files directly from
Windows/File Explorer here. You have to use the program to access your
files. From there, you can drag and drop files in and out of the
container, open files into their respective programs, edit, and delete
them.
One nice touch: The encrypted files take up only the space they need.
You can use the rest of the drive for files that don’t need protection.
After a two-week trial period, EncryptStick costs $14.
Use free software that’s not really all that portable
Regular readers know I’m a fan of VeraCrypt,
a free, open-source encryption tool. There are several ways to use
VeraCrypt, but I recommend creating an encrypted container (also called a
volume or a vault).
You can install VeraCrypt as a portable program. Plug in your external
drive, and launch the downloaded installation program. On the page
immediately after the EULA, select Extract.
This will put a portable version of VeraCrypt onto your external drive.
You can create a vault, of any size, on the external drive.
But there’s a problem. The portable version of VeraCrypt works only if
you’re using an administrator-level account or have the password for
one. Or, of course, if the non-portable version is installed on the
machine. This seriously limits with which computers you use the program.
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