Encrypt Your USB Drive - Keep Data Safe

[amitbhandari 0]

USB drives are like keychains - they can easily be misplaced. You don't want your data in the wrong hands, so encrypt it and spoil the thief's party!!

 

I am going to use TrueCrypt, an open-source freeware utility, to encrypt documents.

 

Download and Install

Download the utility from http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/. Unpack it and install it. The main interface window is as shown below. It looks sparse but it has got everything you need.

 

 

Select What to Encrypt

First we need to create a volume. On the main screen, hit the create volume button and follow on to the next screen. Here, select Create Standard TrueCrypt volume and click Next. Once done, you will get an option to create and encrypted drive or Device - select creation of volume your hard drive, and it can completely encrypt a hard drive partition or a USB device.

 

 

Select your Drive

Once Device is selected, a small window opens, listing all the partitions on your hard drive. This will also list any removable drives. Select the drive you want to encrypt and click next.

The Actual Encryption

This step deals with selecting the encryption and hash algorithms. Leave the defaults if you are not sure.The default algorithm is AES, which is industry-wide standard, and reliable enough for most purposes. The hash algorithm used is RIPEMD-160. The drop-down menu lists any encryption algorithms and hash algorithms. A detailed description about each is given in the Help file.

 

 

The All-Important Password

Here, the software will prompt you for a password, upto 20 characters in length. Ifyou're encrypting critical data, use atleast an 8- or 10-character password for safety. Key in thw password and then re-type to confirm.

 

 

Formatting your Device

The final step is to format the device. Here, you can select the desired file system and cluster size. Before clicking on Format, move the mouse at random for about thirty seconds to create a good encryption key.

 

 

Use It!

Once an encrypted volume ios create, it needs to be mounted before you can access it. To mount the drive, open TrueCrypt and select any drive letter from window, in this case, K. Then click on Select Device button and select the encrypted volume (the USB drive). You will be prompted to provide password; key in the password and the drive will be mounted. Once mounted, the drive can be accessed just like any other partition, and you'll be able to read from and write to it.