Being able to take your files on the road or across town is an awesome convenience – and a tad unnerving if you happen to lose that fob sized drive with gigabytes of data on it. But there are plenty of ways to keep your data safe, and eScurityPlanet has a full guide to help you make the best possible purchase.
Removable storage devices, such as USB Flash memory and portable hard drives, have become so commonplace that it’s hard to remember that there was a time you couldn’t so easily walk around with gigabytes (or even dozens or hundreds of gigs) of storage tucked into a pocket or purse. While the data mobility that this kind of storage affords can be a huge boon to productivity, it can also put information at serious risk given how easily the devices can be misplaced, lost, or stolen.
While there’s little you can do to prevent a storage device from going missing, you can mitigate the risk to the data on it through encryption (typically 128- or 256-bit AES) so that anything sensitive or confidential will be protected should an errant device fall into the wrong hands. In fact, depending on the nature of the information you’re dealing with, it may be subject to laws or regulations that oblige you to keep it secure.
Read the complete Removable Storage Buyers’ Guide
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