In today's extensively computerized world, a USB thumb drive is one of the handiest doodads, we all store information on. However, protecting these handy devices for data security is something, about which most of us aren't familiar with. Isn't it?
Well, you are not the only one if you have left your storage device unsecured; majority of USB drive users might not have even thought about it. Imagine, what would happen if one day, while travelling, your drive slips off your pocket or is just stolen? Do you know the consequences?
An unsecured USB drive, if goes into wrong hands, can result into loss and misuse of your personal data. And even if it is not the case of accidental loss, there might be a virus attack that can enter your drive and can infect it.
At this point, it becomes imperative to protect your USB drive with an efficient password protection system, for secured access. Cast a glance at the 10 easy steps to safeguard your thumb drive, mentioned below:
- Write Protect Your Pen Drive: Using the write protector switch of your USB drive, if it has one, you can make it read only. However, if the write protector switch is missing, you can use a write protector software to make your USB non writable. This technique can save your drive from being infected by viruses, when plugged into a computer system.
- Utilize the Power of Shift Key: If in a situation when you suspect that your portable drive is being infected, then, as you plug it into your computer system, hold down the shift key to prevent Autorun, in case it is not disabled already.
- Create An Encrypted Partition: Encryption of USB drives can is an efficient way to prevent third parties from accessing your sensitive data, even if they have physical access to your drive.
- Install an Antivirus: Securing your drive with an efficient antivirus program is a great way that adds to its safety. Antivirus programs basically provide protection against malicious softwares trying to hit the data present inside the drive.
- Password Protection: Although, there are different techniques to password protect a USB drives, the most common way is to simply set a password for your drive. This means every time you access your drive, it asks for the password first. You can also use online softwares for such purposes.
- Enable Autorun.inf File Read Only: Having a custom autorun.inf file with enabled read only mode and having system file attribute set, can help you in safeguarding your thumb drive from being attacked by malicious software, even if it has a virus.
- Add An operating environment: There are softwares available online, that offers you with an interface, similar to your computer system, but lets you operate without leaving any trace. This means you can remain assured about your data and confidentiality.
- Find Online USB Protection Solutions: You can opt for online USB password management services, which is highly beneficial in case you are using multiple drives. These services manage and maintain privacy of your USB drives by generating strong passwords.
- Backup Your USB Drive: Some of the online softwares lets you backup, synchronize and encrypt the data inside your USB drive. This is beneficial in case you lost your drive and need that data.
- Make It Bootable: Installing and running Linux from your USB drive is an excellent way to do all your work using Linux applications, by simply plugging it into an another system. It lets you surf online without leaving any history on host computer.
Stolen and infected portable USBs can cause huge penalties. Therefore, effective security measures should always be adopted so as to mitigate the risk of data loss and chances of theft. Though small these devices are, protection is important to be ensured always.
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