subject: Encrypting Portable Data [print this page] Encrypting Portable Data Encrypting Portable Data
Every few months there appears to be a different story in the uk regarding a government official losing public data, usually by means of an optical disc or a USB stick. Unfortunately, at the current time, I can't see this situation changing, since the very reason these devices are widely-used is exactly what make them possible to misplace, and a nightmare to cope with once there lost. Just in case you didn't know, the optical disc and USB formats are small in size (less so for the optical disc), lightweight, and will often hold a sizable amount of data. And unfortunately, human's are susceptible to error as we're not perfect, so mistakes and accidents are forever prone to happen as long as humans walk the earth's surface.However, you'll find things that can be done to safeguard against losing this data, and ways to minimise the impact in case one of those devices do go missing. Firstly, encryption. Encryption basically states the data is stored on a device, and the data is changed in a way to make it totally useless to anybody apart from the one who should be able to view the data. For example, if I were to store a file on a USB disk, and then encrypt this file, only myself could access the data within the file, even if someone could physically obtain access to it.Now, there's two main methods for encrypting data on portable media like these two. The first is via hardware, and the second via software. Both offering a comparable service, although the cost obviously varies with each kind and with each product. Overall though, your choices will be able to encrypt the information as it's saved to the media, or to save the information to media, and then to encrypt the information on demand separately afterwards. Data encryption is strongly recommended whenever using USB or optical media, and I'd suggest that everyone takes a look into it.
