Friday, December 12, 2008

USB Flash Drive Security: Encryption and Password Protection

I was recently asked for my opinion on the use of secure USB flash drives in business. Specifically, whether biometric security (in this case fingerprint scanning directly on the USB flash drive) was a secure method. Based on my cursory results, I would say that while USB flash drives using fingerprint security was certainly attempted in the early-to-mid 2000's, it has since disappeared, and is now inferior to the long-standing password and encryption protection methods.

It's interesting. I noticed some major portable storage companies - SanDisk, Lexar, and Sony - all had USB Flash Drives with integrated fingerprint scanning that came out several years ago. And from what I can tell, none of these products exist in the market today. However, all of the major players, as well as some niche companies, continue to focus on USB flash drives with password protection and encryption as popular and secure option (e.g., IronKey, TruCrypt). Therefore, I'd recommend the password and data-encryption method of securing your USB flash drive.

Posted via Woodland Blog (http://dramse01.blogspot.com)

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