Flash Drive Security

Depending on where you go with your flash drives, you should think about security. There are two kinds of security associated with a drive:

1. Password security- let you "see the files on the drive"
2. File security- encrypts information on the drive so it can be read only by you.

The 2nd type only makes sense if you use a password; that is, you have to have a password to "see the files on the drive" and the files on the drive are in a special format that is encrypted. The 2nd means that, if you lose the drive, the information on it can't be extracted using sophisticated file extraction programs.

Many drives come with a good security program. However, like me, I expect most haven't actually used the program. So the information on the drive is NOT secure. You lose the drive, the finder gains the information on the drive.

So use your flash security program on the flash drive if you have information that might compromise your privacy or the privacy of others.

If you don't have a security program on your drive, you can get a good free one. It is called Safehouse Explorer. (I got this information from PC World.)