[Web4lib] USB Drive Encryption?

[John Fereira]

At 12:03 PM 12/19/2007, Michael McDonnell wrote:
>MichaelMay.27904586 at bloglines.com wrote:
>>Can anyone recommend software to password protect or encrypt a USB 
>>thumb drive?
>>I need something that's free, very easy to install and configure, will work
>>on Windows PCs or laptops without administrator rights. I'm most interested
>>in what people are actually using themselves. Thanks in advance for 
>>any suggestions.
>>-Mike in Dubuque
>>
>>
>I use TrueCrypt.  It can encrypt an entire device, or it can be used 
>to create a file that acts as a virtual drive (shows up as a 
>separate drive letter).
>
>http://www.truecrypt.org/
>
>I recommend against using encryption solutions built into or bundled 
>with USB thumb drives.  Many of them have been shown to be trivial to defeat.

It is also worth noting that USB drives are being used to disseminate 
viruses.   On a windows machine, when the O/S detects a file called 
autorun.inf on removable media it assumes that it is an installation 
script and executes it (I believe windows can be configured to change 
this behavior).  If the autorun.inf file is replaced by something 
nefarious all sorts of bad things can happen.

A few weeks ago I was at a week long workshop in Zambia for a project 
I am involved in.  During the course of the week, about 40 people 
worked together as teams to develop a dozen or so proposals.  Because 
Internet access was somewhat spotty there was a lot of file sharing 
using flash drives.  Near the end of the week there were several 
laptops that became almost unusable due to a virus that was being 
transmitted on flash drives that installed a rootkit.  A good 
encryption solution may have solved them a lot of grief.


>--
>Michael McDonnell
>michael at winterstorm.ca
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John Fereira
jaf30 at cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY