USB drive with protection

[Erni]

Sending another kid to college and want to find a way to securely store their pictures and some personal documents.
I saw usb drives with keyboards and good crypto but they are expensive and small capacity. Saw a few with finger scanners too. Is it acceptable to just run software encryption or password protection on a usb drive?
Remember this is mostly pictures but would also have copy of passport and stuff like that. Since I expect them to misplace it I would like to protect it against the garden variety snooping.

[Grant H.]

I use BitLocker To Go.

[FoxtArt]

Veracrypt is the future iteration of truecrypt. You could use that to create a volume on any USB drive and it would be secure. Truecrypt had some good examples of it's security being tested even by the US Gov.

I believe Microsoft's solution is also secure, but yet, on the other hand... I also don't trust Microsoft *at all* when it comes to intentional backdoors or weaknesses. But, that isn't a concern against coffee-shop style attackers, so it'll do it too.

[bradbn4]

The above recommendations are prob a better fit - but

There are AES256 class encrypted hard drives - or build your own external hard drive kits that can lock the data down at a reasonable cost.
At one time I used encrypted external drives to hold work related material that was too big at the time to fit on local storage.


use the search term
aes-256 encrypted external hard drive

depending on your price point and level of security the sky is the limit.

The following lets you roll your own type of sdd/hd for your thumb drive.

https://www.amazon.com/Made-Korea-FahanTech-Enclosures-Metal-Black/dp/B00XEC1244

There are better designed drives setup that are a bit more secure.

https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Hardware-Encrypted-Portable-A25-3PL256-1000/dp/B007JGB0EI/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=aes+256+encrypted+external+drive&qid=1628277131&sr=8-3

I think that one was used by the company SA to secure data in the labs. Detects brute force attacks and auto deletes stuff.

If I play this game again, I would get an SSD drive use the external case to get both speed and flexibility.

[thedave1164]

I would suggest a cloud storage solution, accessible from anywhere.

And make all the docs/scans into PDF’s

Hard to lose it if you don’t have it in your pocket

[Duman]

How well does a password protected USB drive like Kingston Digital Travel Locker work?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C9HR3HH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[battlemidget]

Microsoft has a neat app called Office Lens. It's a 'photo to pdf' using your phone's camera, and it integrates with OneDrive nicely. Microsoft has good authentication as well, with sharing capability to the HQ machine at Ft LivingRoom.
You can do all that for free.

[Delfuego]

Bitlocker 2go or Veracrypt would work.

Another consideration would be a encrypted transfer or encrypted cloud vault. For cheap Bitwarden has this ability and provides and good password manager. This could come in handy if you think there will be more stuff to transfer in the future. Things can be added and remove or set to expire after opening once, after 1day, 1 year, etc.

[Delfuego]

Signal can do it too, from mobile to mobile.

[Ah Pook]

How are these options better than OSX encryption (Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled))?

[Little Dutch]

I just use the OneDrive Personal Vault for passport pics and other personal identification documents. Accessible from my phone and impossible to misplace.
Microsoft and the feds have unfettered access to the OneDrive Personal Vault, no doubt, but they know what my passport and drivers license look like already.