USB flash drives are the best removable storage media available. Being very compact and light, USB flash drives make data mobility easy and convenient. However, because they’re mobile devices, protecting the data on them is especially important. It’s very handy to be able to share USB flash drives with friends and colleagues but whilst doing so, you can still control the data you share with them. This can be achieved by encrypting your data. 

Encryption is a method where data is scrambled using a key-based cipher in such a way that no one can read the data unless he/she knows the key to decrypt or unlock the cipher. Encryption can be used to encrypt data that resides on various storage media such as laptops, hard drives, and of course, USB flash drives. When encryption is done on USB storage media it’s called USB encryption.

When a USB flash drive is encrypted, it ensures that the data on it is safe and protected. Even if the encrypted flash drive gets misplaced or stolen, no one will be able to read the data. Only people who know the proper code to decipher the data can see the data. 

Imagine losing an unencrypted flash drive containing highly sensitive business or personal data! Carrying an encrypted USB flash drive helps employees to protect a company's proprietary data and resources from getting into the wrong hands. 

The encryption is done using Advanced Encryption Standards (AES) at 128-bit or 256-bit. This is the successor to the older DES (Data Encryption Standard). Even the US government uses Advanced Encryption Standards for encrypting secret-level and top-secret-level documents.

Data encryption can be done though various encryption software utilities. TrueCrypt is one of the most popular free encryption tools available.  When software like TrueCrypt is used for software based encryption it creates a secure partition known as a 'container' which contains data in encrypted format and requires a password to access them. 

Using TrueCrypt to encrypt your USB flash drive is really simple. Here is a short guide on how to use it.

Go to the TrueCrypt website and download the TrueCrypt software for your operating system. Install the setup file and launch the TrueCrypt application.

Connect your USB flash drive to your computer and click the ‘Create Volume’ button to start the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard.

Select ‘Create an encrypted file container’ radio button and click ‘Next’.

Select the ‘Standard TrueCrypt volume’ option and click ‘Next’.

In the Volume Location window, specify the file name and location for the container. Here my USB flash drive’s letter is G and I want to create a container called MyEncrypt, so I’ve specified G:\MyEncrypt. Click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Next you’ll be prompted to select an Encryption Algorithm and Hash Algorithm. If you are not sure which algorithm to select, I’d recommend you to select the default values i.e. Encryption Algorithm as AES and Hash Algorithm as RIPEMD-160. Click the ‘Next’ button to continue. 

Now specify the size of the container either in KB, MB or GB depending on the size of your USB flash drive. For your convenience, TrueCrypt shows the total free space available on your flash drive. Click the ‘Next’ button to proceed.

Next, specify a strong password which you can remember easily. This password will be used to access and mount the container. Click on ‘Next’ to continue.

Next, you will be asked to choose a file system and cluster size. If you are not sure what to chose, leave the default values and click the ‘Format’ button.

Click the ‘Ok’ - > ‘Exit’ button to complete the volume creation process.

Now, navigate to the TrueCrypt directory and copy the entire directory to the root of your flash drive. If you haven’t changed the installation path during installation, the default location would be: C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt

Lastly, open Notepad and add the following lines to it (change the container name – “MyEncrypt” in the code with the name you gave your container). Save the file as autorun.inf into the root directory of your flash drive. 

Unplug your USB flash drive and plug it back in. The autoplay will list a ‘Mount TrueCrypt Volume’ option. Click on it!

Enter the password to access the container.

In the following image, the drive ‘I’ is the container. Put your important data in this folder and let TrueCrypt take care of your files.

Data storage safety is a major security concern but with the help of data encryption technologies, companies, organizations and individuals can protect their data. You can turn OnTop’s high speed USB flash drives into encrypted USB flash drives with the help of software encrypting tools like TrueCrypt. 

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