Gone in a Flash!

Flash drives (aka, thumb drives, pen drives, jump drives) are one the most useful inventions in the computer world. About the size of your thumb (hence the name), these drives plug into a USB port on your PC and have capacities up to 4 gigabytes or more.

These handy gadgets are great for transporting and storing photos, music, and backing up important files. But as handy as they are, flash drives are not without their problems.

Their small size make them easy to lose and susceptible to theft. And if your flash drive is lost or stolen, someone else will have access to the data on it. This can be a real problem if the drive contains personal information such as your social security number, bank accounts and credit card numbers.

While it may be not be possible to prevent your flash drive from being lost or stolen, you can secure the data on it by using encryption. So, even if you do lose your drive, your encrypted data will be safe from prying eyes.

Using data encryption with your flash drive is fairly straight forward. You can buy a flash drive that has built-in encryption such as those from IronKey. These drives typically cost more than standard flash drives, but it may be worth the extra expense to protect your data.

If, like me, you already have a flash drive without built-in encryption, or if you're working on a tight budget, there are several free encryption add-ons available for standard flash drives. For my 4 GB Kingston Technology flash drive, I opted for the free open-source disk encryption software from the TrueCrypt Foundation.

TrueCrypt is available for Windows and Linux [update: Mac version added February 2008], uses the latest encryption algorithms such as AES-256, and is easy to install and set up. It provides quick on-the-fly encryption and decryption as you transfer files to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume.

You can also set up TrueCrypt to run from the flash drive so you can use your encrypted drive on other PCs without having to first install the software. For more information and to download this free software, visit the TrueCrypt Foundation site.

By using a little precaution along with encrypting your data, you can protect your lost flash drive data from falling in the wrong hands.

Now, if I can only do something about losing my Bluetooth headset...

By Harry Hiles, HBH Technology LLC — 19 Oct 2007

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