Encrypt your thumb drive
HOW TO SECURE YOUR MOBILE STORAGE IN 2020.
FOR ALL THE high security VPNs, end-to-end cryptography and phone lockdown and anti-theft software we have now, the good ol’ thumb drive remains pretty much as vulnerable as ever. Flash drives remain a major cause of corporate and personal data breaches as people carry around huge amounts of unencrypted data on them, with their only security mechanism being “I hope I don’t lose it.”
Now there are hardware encrypted flash drives on the market, but they tend to cost a lot of money, at least compared to a regular flash drive. But you don’t need to spend that money – there are software utilities that will create an encrypted flash drive for you, and this month we’re going to look at one of our favourites: SecurStick.
WHAT SECURSTICK DOES
SecurStick is an all-in-one solution for encrypting flash drives. When you use other encryption tools, you might have to create separate partitions on the drive – an encrypted partition where you store your data, but also an unencrypted partition with the decryption software on it, so that the device you’re trying to access the contents of the drive on can see the encrypted partition.
SecurStick bypasses a lot of that fiddling. It will create a virtual “Safe Zone” on the drive in which all files will be encrypted, along with their file names. The software will work on Windows, macOS and Linux, ensuring that you can read the encrypted files on most platforms. It doesn’t require that any software be permanently installed on the devices – instead it uses a portable executable that you run when you plug the drive in.
GETTING THE SOFTWARE AND PUTTING IT ON THE FLASH DRIVE
SecurStick is free for personal use, and can be downloaded from www.withopf.com/ tools/securstick/.
The website is in German (you can read it through Google Translate), but don’t worry
– the application itself supports English. Just download it from one of the download links.
It downloads as a Zip file, which you’ll have to unzip to access. Inside the Zip file is a single executable file – this is the program itself; it doesn’t need to be installed.
Don’t run the program from your main hard drive. Instead, plug your flash drive in and copy or move the SecurStick executable file over to it by dragging and dropping it in Windows Explorer (if you’re using Windows).
If you want to be able to access the flash
drive on other platforms, you can also download the executables for those other platforms from the SecurStick website. For example, if you want to be able to access encrypted files on macOS, then download the macOS version, unzip it and copy the file over to the flash drive. That way, when you plug the flash drive into a Mac, the macOS SecurStick executable will be right there on the flash drive to run.
ENCRYPTING FILES
Once you’ve moved the executable to the flash drive, open up the flash drive and double click on the application to launch it.
When you run it, a DOS box will appear in your taskbar (if you’re using Windows). Don’t do anything to that box; when you close it, you’re closing SecurStick.
SecurStick is unusual in that it uses a web browser for its UI. The DOS window is essentially a background task, while you control the actual application through a browser. On Windows it will actually often fire up Internet Explorer by default (because, for some reason, that’s still the default browser in the Windows Registry), though you can use any browser by typing 127.0.0.1/login into the address bar of your chosen browser.
The rest is actually a simple process. In the browser, it will explain that it will create a “Safe Zone” – this is an encrypted virtual drive on your USB media. You’ll be asked to enter a password, and it will enforce the listed password rules. Don’t lose this password – there is no password recovery tool!
Once you’ve done that, a Safe Zone will be created. In Windows, you’ll see a new drive letter appear in File Explorer, and the browser window will inform you that Safe Zone is logged in.
USING THE DRIVE
When Safe Zone is logged in, you’ll see that a new drive has been created for you in File Explorer or Finder. This is the encrypted drive: everything you move or copy into it will be encrypted and only visible while SecurStick is running and Safe Zone logged in. So, to protect your files, just drag and drop them into that new drive. In
Windows, the drive will likely be labelled
‘X’ and be assigned to the first available drive letter (probably A:).
And that’s all there is to it. The files on your flash drive are secured. When you close the Safe Zone, either by logging off (by clicking the Logoff link, which will close
SecurStick) or by closing the DOS window, those files will no longer be accessible or visible, and the drive will disappear from File Explorer or Finder.
To access them again, just run SecurStick from the flash drive once more. This time when you run it, you’ll simply be asked to enter your password.
When you do, the drive will be recreated and will appear again in File Explorer or Finder, with all your encrypted files contained within.
To take the files to another PC, you just perform the same process. Unplug your flash drive and take it to the other computer. When you plug it in and open it, you’ll be able to see the SecurStick executable(s) that you copied onto the flash drive. Run the executable that’s appropriate for the new platform you’re using (Windows, Mac or Linux), and enter your password in the browser window, just as before. A new drive will be created on the PC with all the encrypted files on it, and you can access all the files stored in it. Flash drive security accomplished, easy as can be.
FLASH DRIVES REMAIN A MAJOR CAUSE OF CORPORATE AND PERSONAL DATA BREACHES AS PEOPLE CARRY AROUND HUGE AMOUNTS OF UNENCRYPTED DATA ON THEM, WITH THEIR ONLY SECURITY