Encrypted USB Flash Drives keep your private data safe but how do they work? By the end of this video we will have explained ways to make your portable storage safe and secure even if it should accidentally fall into the wrong hands. Whether it be financial papers, personal photos, sensitive work documents or a master plan to take over the world, it’s your private data and you should be able to keep it that way.

Did you know that roughly 22 thousand USB drives are lost at the drycleaners every year?! And nearly half of the people that find them plug them in and click on at least one file!? I mean, maybe they are altruistically thinking they’ll find your contact info to return it but still! So what are your options for securing your portable storage?

Secure USB drives are basically encrypted data on a stick. They use a dedicated processor physically located on the drive that generates an encryption key. Some even have a numerical keypad on the drive so that you can set a pin number. This Kingston DataTraveler 2000 rocks the keypad we just mentioned and therefore, requires no driver or software installation on your PC. You can also turn a regular USB into a secure USB using 3rd party software like Bitlocker from Microsoft. BitLocker is an encryption feature included with most versions of Microsoft Windows that can encrypt your entire drive and also protect against malware. There are also tools like SecurStick that make this process super simple. For our Mac friends out there, you don’t need a third party tool to encrypt a flash drive. If you format the drive with Apple’s HFS+ file system - fair warning, this WILL delete all files on it so backup first, and you will not be able to use it on a Windows machine - then you can right click the drive in the Finder and select Encrypt and add a password. The process only takes a few minutes.

So how do you know when to choose a secure USB vs. a normal USB with secure software? Software encryption is more commonly found because it is more flexible. It can secure email, web, and all types of data with one solution. Hardware encryption is much faster and more secure because it’s not vulnerable to malware attacks and corruption although hardware-based encryption does tend to cost a bit more, especially for small scale applications. Now that being said, if you are buying in bulk then hardware-based can be much more cost-effective.

So what kind of sensitive information do you have sitting around that you’d like to share with thousands of anonymous strangers on the internet? Leave it in the comments below! I kid, I kid. Please like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any future tips and I’ll see you next time with more DIY in 5!

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