When I bought my first real computer, it came with a whopping 20 MB hard drive. This nicely held the operating system, my office applications, and all of the data that I required for regular use. I even got a few games on there.

Today, the smallest USB drive that I have will hold 32 MB of data and it is almost considered to be useless because it holds so little data. My regular USB drive that I use for day to day storage is a 4 GB drive with more than enough room to handle several applications, my development environment, and all the documents that I can generate.

And I am not alone in ownership of a USB drive. Everywhere you look, these things are showing up. Most people have at least one, many (like myself) have several.

But, while these devices are extremely convenient and allow you to keep your files with you, how safe is your data on them? What are you doing to keep them safe? I have a few ideas on the subject…

What’s The Big Deal?

I always have to laugh to myself whenever I talk with people about keeping their USB drives safe. I often hear, “I don’t care if I lose it because they are so cheap. I’ll just buy another one!” It is very true. I typically find that USB drive prices drop by about 50% year over year. That means that you will be able to buy an 8 GB drive a year from now for the price of a 4 GB drive today.

But, the real issue isn’t the cost of the drive, it is the value of the data on the drive. And when you put data on a USB drive, you take some very real risks with that data.

Risk #1: USB Drives Are Easy To Lose and Steal

One of the biggest advantages that USB drives brings, i.e. its small size and portability, can also be a huge disadvantage. When you can fit entire encyclopedias’ worth of information on a small device, it is pretty attractive. But such small devices are also really easy to lose or lose track of.

Just imagine how often you have lost your car or house keys, pens, sunglasses, wallet, etc. You think, “No problem! I’ll just go buy a new one,” but in this case, the keys would never open your car or house, the pen would not come with ink and you couldn’t buy any, the sunglasses would come without lenses, and you would never be able to replace the credit cards or ID cards in the new wallet.

This is essentially what would happen if you lost your USB drive.

Not to mention, they are really easy to steal. It only takes seconds for someone to palm a USB drive and slid it into their pocket.

Risk #2: USB Drives Fail

I make a point of replacing my primary USB drive every year because I know for a fact that there are a finite number of times that you can write to a USB drive. There are also defects, physical wear and tear, accidentally dropping it in a blender (OK. So it’s an iPod. But you can use it like a USB drive.), etc. Just because there are no moving parts does not mean that there is nothing to break.

Risk #3: Data Gets Into The Wrong Hands

How excited do you think your boss would be if your company’s competition got your USB drive that had a file on it called NextYearsCompetitiveAdvantage.doc? Corporate espionage is a huge business and some people would just love to get their hands on your easy to snag USB drive.

Protect Yourself

Since there are some pretty obvious reasons to keep your USB drive and its contents safe, let’s look at some ways that we can do just that.

Backup Your Data

If you are not backing up your data, you are just begging for disaster to come and bite you on the butt. This information needs to be backed up just the same way that you backup your My Documents, e-mail, and your favorites.

Probably the easiest way to backup your USB drive is to use a folder monitoring and synchronizing tool. One of my favorites is FileHamster. Not only does it copy all of your files to your hard drive, it monitors file changes live so they can be copied immediately. Plus, it will create file versions so that you can look at different version of your documents while you work.

Encrypt Your Data

Now that you have backed up your data, you are no longer worried about not having your data available. But what about the data that is still on your drive. If someone stole it, they can still see all of the data.

This is why you need to encrypt the contents of your USB drive. There are several ways that you can do this. Many USB drives come with software that will encrypt the contents. Other drives use biometrics to lock the drive so that you need a fingerprint to access the data. Either will suffice for what you need.

If neither of these are an option, I would suggest using something like TrueCrypt to lock down your data. I use this exclusively on every USB drive with vital information on it. I would suggest that you create an encrypted volume in a file rather than encrypting the entire USB drive. This way, you can create some customizations on the drive if you want and still encrypt the data.

Make Your USB Drive Hard to Lose/Steal

Because USB drives are so small, they are very easy to lose or steal. Put in place some measure that will make it more difficult to lose or steal. Some ideas include:

• Use the lanyard that came with the drive
• Clip it to your keys (just don’t lose your keys)
• Keep it in the same spot all the time
• Attach a motion sensor to it
• Clearly engrave your name on it
• Mod it so that it doesn’t look like a USB drive

Granted that some of these may be a bit extreme but it all comes down to how important is your data to you?

Regularly Replace Your USB Drives

To help avoid those nasty drive failures, I strongly suggest that you replace your drive on a regular basis. How often you do this really depends on how much you use the drive but a good rule of thumb is to replace your drive every one to two years. (The way I remember to do this is by buying myself a USB drive birthday present each year!)

Conclusion

If you have a USB drive and you are not taking steps to protect its contents, it is not a matter of if something goes wrong, it is a matter of when. Don’t get caught unprepared. Protect your USB drives NOW!

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