Flash drives have become the storage medium of choice these days. With
the increasing storage capacities available, people are beginning to
store a majority of their data on pen drives.
But in such cases, data security is a persistent problem. One would
think twice before carrying important or sensitive data on portable
media. If the pen drive is lost or compromised, sensitive data
could fall in the wrong hands. But there’s a solution to this, password
protection! You can simply password protect USB flash drives so that
only you or authorized users can access the data. So there’s two types
of protection, there’s simple password protection wherein data cannot be
seen without entering a password and there’s encryption, in which the
data is actually encrypted and can be decrypted and accessed only with a
password. In the free tools below, we have both types of protection, so take your pick!
Top 5 Free Softwares to Password Protect a Pen drive:
First up, we have Encrypt Stick Free. It boasts of quite an impressive
list of features but unfortunately not all of them are completely
available in the free version. However, if you’re looking for a free
program to password protect
small amounts of data this can be the software for you. It’s got
password protection, storage vaults, password expiry time and a cool
feature that automatically reprotects files after a certain amount of
time if left idle.
Download Encrypt Stick Free
USB Secure is another solution to password protect flash drives and in
fact, any removable media including memory cards, external hard disks
and the like. Like Encrypt Stick Free, it also provides additional
features in a paid full version. Nevertheless, it does what it’s
supposed to and if you need advanced features like virtual partitions,
vaults and more you can buy the full version.
Download USB Secure
One of the simplest tools on the list, USB Flash Security lets you
select your USB drive and protection is simply a few clicks away. Along
with the password even a hint can be mentioned. The features are rather
basic, but it gets the job done. One thing you have to keep in mind
though, this is made by a Japanese company and the grammar in the
program and help files can be quite horrible. If you don’t mind a few
typos, language errors and such, USB Flash Security is a good tool to password protect USB flash drives.
Download USB Flash Security
Rohos Mini Drive is program that lets you create a hidden, encrypted
partition in the USB flash drive that can be accessed only by inputting a
password. It comes in an installation as well as portable version that
can be carried on removable media and used without installation.
Futhermore, Rohos Mini Drive can be used to password protect files and folders even on your computer. For example, you can hide specific subfolders within an otherwise visible directory.
Download Rohos Mini Drive
TrueCrypt is the most fully featured encryption tool and the best part
is, it’s completely free and open source! It provides extremely solid
protection by encrypting files, folders, you name it on both removable
media and your computer. You can even choose encryption algorithms.
Specific files can be used as “key files” to unlock too. TrueCrypt has
an great feature where hidden, encrypted partitions can be created and
accessed differently based on passwords. For example, you can create 2
partitions on an 8 GB pendrive
of 4 GB each called A and B. Now, you can encrypt it such that one
password unlocks and decrypts only partition A and another password does
the same only for partition B. TrueCrypt is your best bet if you’re
looking for an encryption solution not only to password protect USB
Flash Drives but protect other data too.
Download TrueCrypt
Let me know if there’s any other program that you think performs the
same functions equally well or better than the ones I’ve mentioned
above. Or as always, leave us your comments and queries below!
Flash drives have become the storage medium of choice these days. With
the increasing storage capacities available, people are beginning to
store a majority of their data on pen drives.
But in such cases, data security is a persistent problem. One would
think twice before carrying important or sensitive data on portable
media. If the pen drive is lost or compromised, sensitive data
could fall in the wrong hands. But there’s a solution to this, password
protection! You can simply password protect USB flash drives so that
only you or authorized users can access the data. So there’s two types
of protection, there’s simple password protection wherein data cannot be
seen without entering a password and there’s encryption, in which the
data is actually encrypted and can be decrypted and accessed only with a
password. In the free tools below, we have both types of protection, so take your pick!
Kakasoft USB Security is also a great USB Storage encryption software, I have been using it for locking usb drive. more about it at: http://www.kakasoft.com/usb-security/how-to-password-protect-usb-on-windows.html
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your suggestion, I'll add it to this list soon.
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KakaSoft is a professional folder protection, USB security, Shared folder protect, private disk encryption software provider for Windows users password protect usb
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