New flash drive against data theft

Flash memory, the size of a thumb, is as cheap as it can be and provides GB of memory. It can temporarily store important data in a computer, clamp it to a key chain, and go with you to the road.

But if you miss it when you get the money back at Starbucks, and a hacker who doesn't know from some corner finds it? Probably not good.

That's why a new flash drive was released - built-in powerful encryption technology like military use, forcing users to type in passwords to access data.

The author tested several flash drive security solutions like Take Anywhere's Pocket Safe ($ 59.95), IronKey ($ 149) and TrueCrypt, a free software that can be used with any USB device.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but IronKey is the most satisfactory authoring solution, with a built-in Firefox browser, a large capacity and strong password protection.

This metal-plated 4GB Ironkey configuration is quite simple. After plugging in the USB slot of your computer, you must create a username and password before you can store and use other utilities. (One of these is: You can back up the encrypted data from IronKey to the desktop.)

From now on, every time you plug IronKey into your computer, a panel will show up on the screen and ask you for a password. Without a password, data cannot be viewed or tampered with. In fact, you should be careful, if you enter the wrong password 10 times in a row, IronKey will permanently delete the data and cannot use it anymore. You cannot even reformat.

Source: Everythingusb In IronKey, the writer's favorite feature is the built-in Firefox browser. It allows the author to keep all bookmark pages and login information, along with cookies and history items when surfing the Web. This means, no trace of surfing the Web is saved on a computer that is plugged in IronKey.

According to the manufacturer, IronKey is best used with Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X.

The next test is Pocket Safe (Windows only) by Take Anywhere. This 1GB memory uses a numeric typing table. If you don't remember the password you created, you won't be able to open the drive's software control panel.

The author has selected a four-digit password, but this number table has only 5 keys, each contains up to 2 digits. That's it, if the author's access code is 1-2-3-4, someone can find it if you type 0-3-2-5 or 1-2-2-4 or any number combination any other match. A disappointing minus point.

Once you enter the correct password, the green light will start flashing, meaning it is safe to plug Pocket Safe into the USB port.

The Pocket Safe control panel displays a column of icons on the left, used to categorize data such as bank accounts, Web login accounts or traffic records. Pretty convenient for management.

Pocket Safe defaults to exit time after 20 minutes of continuous use of the control panel, quite annoying for users. The author had to increase this milestone to 1 hour.

TrueCrypt (used with Windows 2000 and XP, Linux), an open source software, is promised by the manufacturer to turn almost any USB drive into the pride of Jason Bourne (a famous spy in the movie). , similar to 007). TrueCrypt creates and hides the partition protected by a password in USB.

The author has installed the TrueCrypt program on his laptop and plugged in an old 512Mb USB device, a gift from a technology conference. TrueCrypt gives users 2 options: create a storage partition in the drive (for new users) or encrypt the entire drive. Both ways work smoothly.

For testing, the author plugs the TrueCrypt-encrypted USB device into a computer that has not installed the TrueCrypt program. The flash drive is displayed in the 'My Computer' section, but the 0 byte computer is used, 0 bytes are available. Only when enough TrueCrypt is installed and the password can be decrypted. This protection seems quite safe.

In addition to the above three solutions, there is another program, for those who want to secure their computer in the 'plug-and-play' form: a $ 149 Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico. The device looks like a flash drive, but when plugged in it acts as a security system for laptops or desktops. Instead of relying on the built-in firewall, Yoggie requires you to remove these security programs, and let this device perform its own protection.

After installing Yoggie management software and turning it on, the writer cannot do any online activity without plugging in Yoggie. Producer Yoggie said that it is better to prevent viruses and malware before they get into the computer than to spread them and then kill them.

In general, this method works, although Yoggie software is a bit slow and the writer's computer doesn't always recognize the device. Then the device's lights are blinking green and the author can access it online, when not. Even if it works, Yoggie takes too much time to identify its software.