Flash Drives, USB Keys, Thumb Drives - Are These Things Useful or Safe?

In the wake of the dreadful admission in late December 2009 by Durham Region Health Services just east of Toronto, Canada that an unencrypted USB thumb drive containing upwards of 80,000 H1N1 vaccination records and related personal information was lost, we've all got to wonder yet again if anybody is truly minding the store. I can't walk into my own doctor's office to look at my own medical records without the presence of a licensed physician. I can barely keep track of my car keys, let alone the foolishly large collection of USB keys I've, um, misplaced over the years. Yet experienced medical staff thought little of transferring confidential medical records — lots of them — on an unencrypted key. There's even security surveillance video captured just outside a Durham Region Health Services building showing a citizen picking up the flash drive and placing it visibly aside, presumably in case the drive's errant owner returned during a search. Unfortunately, there's also succeeding footage of another citizen picking up the drive and making off with it. Thanks buddy — you're a real hero. For crying out loud, don't transport important or confidential business or personal data on one of those little devices unless the data is encrypted. Even then, make sure the data is securely backed up before committing an encrypted copy to any USB flash thumb/drive/key. We did some digging because we absolutely know you're going to use a USB flash thumb/drive/key at some point soon. Here are our picks, all available at Amazon.com, for the most secure: Lenovo 4GB USB Ultra Secure Memory Key - automatic, password protected encryption, all through hardware so there's no software installation EMTEC S450 Secure Slider 32 GB High Capacity High Speed USB Flash Drive - same AES encryption as the Lenovo, but software is installed for the password protection Kingston DataTraveler 200 - 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive - It's a fair choice, but note that you can only store date securely in a password protected "Privacy Zone" on the device, and note also that the security software utility is Windows-only Lexar JumpDrive Secure II Plus 64 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive - set up multiple protected areas called "Encrypted Vaults" similar to but more robust than the Kingston, with software for password setup and vault management Apricorn Padlock A25-PL256-500 500 GB Secure 256-bit AES Hardware Encrypted Portable USB Drive - a fully on-board hardware encrypted USB external drive that's pocketable, accessed through a browser window Happy trails. Keep your eye on that USB drive!

Tech Reporting Needs to Improve

In Ryan Naraine's tech column on ZDNet, guest columnist Roel Schouwenberg made the following bold statement in a somewhat interesting piece about some marginally insecure issues related to the Autorun feature in Windows: "[...] tons of USB devices are leaving the manufacturing plant infected — Seagate, TomTom, Apple to name but a few of a very long list. Again, this is very reminiscent of the boot virus era where new pre-formatted floppies had quite a good chance of being infected with something." Tons of infected USB devices are leaving the plants? Tons? How many? 2? 5? 1,000? Or maybe just a few thousand USB devices (which is bad enough) that the tech reporters have blown up into a disaster of biblical proportions? As long as casual hyperbole rules the day, we'll never know for sure. New pre-formatted floppies had quite a good chance of being infected with something back in the day? I personally purchased well over a hundred thousand SS and DSDD floppies during the late '80's and early '90's and never once encountered a new floppy (from Maxell, Sony, BASF, Kodak, TDK, Memorex, Verbatim, etc., etc.) containing a boot virus (or any other kind of virus). Neither did any of the fifteen people I polled after reading Schouwenberg's article. We're genuinely curious about the reasons for the appearance of what we think are far too many useless, inadvertently deceptive or poorly worded statements in tech articles published over the past few years. As tech writers, we're supposed to help, not hinder understanding of the current state of technology.

Kingston Ships 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Drive

Kingston is beginning to ship the 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash drive. The drive is also known as the DT150, and boasts the largest capacity in the DataTraveler line. 32GB is perfect for those of you who want to mount a portable OS and equip it with all your favorite portable apps. There is one downfall to having all that storage of course — you've really got to stay on top of your file management.

USBee Flash Drive

Yanko Design keep coming up with all sorts of cool and wacky tech product concepts. The USBee key is both. This unusual design is shaped like a bee's abdomen and is supposed to prevent accident removals of the key through it being knocked, because the tail of the key flexes. Check out the photo diagram. For more, visit the conceptual products page on the Yanko Design website.