Except for hardware-encrypted USB peripherals, all of these encryption systems work on the premise that your document or flash drive cannot be accessed without entering the correct password. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach in more detail below. Use a hardware-encrypted external hard drive.Use a third-party encryption service to encrypt files or your hard drive.Encrypt the entire external hard drive using an encryption system built into your device’s operating system.Encrypt each document individually using document processing programs.You have four main options when it comes to encrypting the data on your USB peripherals.
Needless to say, when you encrypt your hard drive, make sure you memorize your password or store it in a safe location. Always encrypt such data, and remember to keep a backup as well. As these devices are small in size, they are prone to getting misplaced or stolen.
In other words, if the data you have stored in your external drive is solely for your use, then you should encrypt it, full stop. This type of data includes private personal or business details, photos, identification cards, plaintext passwords, login credentials, and financial information. You should encrypt your personal external storage devices as well, especially when your flash drive has files on it containing sensitive or personally identifiable information. Even if your company is not bound by these regulations, it is still essential to encrypt your USB peripherals to avoid a data breach, which could cause irreparable damage to your business. If you are a business user or a company, data protection regulations such as the GDPR or HIPAA might be mandatory, meaning you’ll need to encrypt your data to avoid costly fines. As long as your private key is secret, your encryption system is safe. You use your private key to decrypt data that was encrypted with your public key. Asymmetric encryption consists of a public key, which you can share publicly and use to encrypt data, and a private key, which you must keep secret. We discuss this more below.) ProtonMail, for example, uses symmetric-key cryptography in the end-to-end encryption it applies to all emails exchanged between two ProtonMail users.Įncryption is broadly categorized into two types - symmetric (AES, Twofish, Triple DES) and asymmetric (RSA) - based on whether the encryption and decryption keys are the same. (This is how symmetric-key cryptography works. This same key is then also used to convert data back into a legible format. This transformation is specified by the encryption key.
What is encryption?Įncryption uses a complex algorithm to convert a message into a string of characters that are illegible. If you encrypt your flash drive, it is much more difficult for attackers to get unauthorized access to the data it contains, even if they steal it or you misplace it.
Hackers can find a way to put even the most seemingly innocuous data to use for their malicious attacks. Even if you are not handling patients’ personal health information on your flash drive, you will want to keep it secure. 9, 2019, the New York City Fire Department had to notify over 10,000 patients because an FDNY employee had lost an external hard drive that contained seven years’ worth of medical records.ĭata breaches like this can be avoided if you encrypt your USB peripherals and external storage devices. In many cases, the result is a damaging data breach. But what happens if you lose or misplace one of these devices? And they are becoming more critical as modern-day schooling, work, and life are increasingly awash in data. USB peripherals (commonly known as “flash drives”), memory cards, and external hard drives all make backing up and sharing your data simple.