How to protect and encrypt your data if it is on a flash memoryâ“đŸ€”

Review 188: 02.07.2021 at 05:00 pm

by OTTO M YASSINE

Someone was walking in London streets, and suddenly found something on the floor, and it was a USB stick. He took it and decided to give it to the police. They thanked him and check the content of the USB stick. What did they find?😹

All the internal maps and surveillance cameras, scenarios and emergency exits in case the queen is in danger. All the information that was in USB belonged to Heathrow Airport in Britain. Even camera blind spots were shown in official documents. More than 50 documents were there. There were more than 100 secret and sensitive files on that USB stick. Thrown on the floor.

Today’s related article is about a culture that must change and develop. The story we just told seriously happened, and there other stories happened around the world too. You suddenly find services of a company stopped working. An employee used a USB stick. Ransomware attack on a facility or a company caused by a link or a USB stick. Many events happened in the worldwide. Few countries took steps towards what happened.

In Europe for example, they issued GDPR General Data Protection Regulation. The data of European citizens. Whether they are inside Europe or outside of it. This system protects them from transferring their data to other serves except on encrypted USBs. It wouldn’t be logical not use USBs at all.

You can’t stop institutions that has more than 1500, 3000 or even 100 employees. You can’t stop them from using USB sticks on their computers.

There are data that need to be transferred out of the ecosystem, that’s when data encryption is applied. Disclaimer, USB sales are improving not decreasing, why?

There are many companies that are trying to fight cloud services where they can store their information. There are sensitive information for associations, governmental facilities that has to be stored inside the country, and it wouldn’t be an option to store them outside.

And if these information need to be transferred, they must use encrypted USB sticks. There are laws to be followed to make sure it is done right! There are 5 steps to consider.

Awareness is one of them..and using the right devices like encrypted USB sticks. I will talk about USBs and encrypted USBs in details and how to use the right USB sticks that can encrypt your data.

There are wrong information about USBs, for example, if you encrypt your data on a USB, someone can decrypt them easily. It is wrong. If you use a USB stick that encrypted data with integrated chips inside that encrypt your data.

If you plug this USB stick to any device without using the encrypted password, your files won’t open. If you used a wrong password for 10 times, all the information on it will be erased. Some USB sticks come with physical keys so that you can open your files on them. If you use a wrong password, all the information on it will be erased.

Let me remind you, you don’t have to use your company information on a USB, there are protected and encrypted servers for that.

If you want to move this information, use an encrypted USB stick. It encrypts your data. You can give access permissions for these data for 10 minutes, you can use it for 10 minutes and it will encrypt again.

Let’s talk about viruses issue:

Some USB sticks are virus resistant, because there is antivirus software integrated in it. All the information will be eared completely, even if you use an infected computer, your USB stick will be safe.

Some USB sticks are water resistant. If you break it and open it, you will find that the components are high quality. This one is assembled in USA. If you work in a company and you don’t know what USB sticks to use, there are consultants. You can call these consultant, and they will understand your needs, and suggest the perfect USB to use in a way that can protect you, your company and your data.

All these USB sticks have company names. If you are a journalist who writes his name on USB sticks, it makes sense. But if you work in a company and use USB sticks that has your company names on it? What if you lost your USB stick?

If someone finds it, they will get sensitive information of your company! What will they do next? They will blackmail you! And if these information are not encrypted, you will be in a huge problem.

Disclaimer: every USB stick has a serial number.

Something a lot of companies don’t know, network administrator, can deny USB sticks from working, but there are softwares that can enable USB sticks to work using serial numbers.

If you bring a USB stick, and plug it to the computer, it won’t open. But if you bring an authorized USB stick and plug it to your computer, it will normally work.

Correction, not all USB sticks can encrypt data, and not all encrypted USB sticks are hardware based.

The datatraveller 2000, is datatraveller volt privacy with additional encryption. And this one is antivirus protected.

Even Ironkey has encrypted USB sticks level 3 validated. it is an authorized level 3 validated, It is sad to pay from 53 to 250 USD for a USB, and when it is broken, you can’t use it. There are guaranteed USB sticks. You would return it to the company to fix it or give you a new one.

Encrypting USB sticks is not like the past by using a software on a computer. These new USB sticks will ask for your password once plugged to a computer. If you type the right password it will open.

I have been using Kingston USB sticks for the past 10 years. If anything happens to them, I call the company. Buying a good USB stick is an investment.

Don’t store your data on regular USB sticks, only use encrypted USB sticks in order to keep information protected. Data is a source of wealth in this country.

The more we have information, the more these information need to protected. If you want to move your information, you must first encrypt them correctly.

Let’s hope that USB sticks awareness will spread.đŸ˜©

This is the end of this review guys, see you soon.😎