Posts Tagged ‘encrypt usb’

USBCrypt makes it easier to get back your lost USB drive

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

If you’ve encrypted a removable USB drive with USBCrypt, you know your files are safe: if you lose the drive, no one will be able to get your files without the correct password that you’ve set up, and the only loss you do suffer in such a case is the cost of the physical drive itself. Still, wouldn’t it be nice to get the drive back anyway?

You can increase the chance of getting your encrypted drive back by putting a message on it to be seen by the person who finds the drive. USBCrypt makes it easy to create such a message: just enter the appropriate text as the host disk name when encrypting the drive:

The message to the founder as the host disk name

(If you’ve already encrypted the drive, you can change the host disk name with the Rename host disk command). The host disk name is the first thing the person sees after plugging the drive in the computer:

The message appears when someone plugs the drive in the computer

Even if the computer happens to have the autoplay function disabled, the person would see the message when s/he opens the Computer folder:

The message is shown as the label of the drive

Yet another place to catch attention of the person who found the drive is the screen that appears when s/he runs the file USBCrypt.exe off the encrypted drive:

The built-in message when unlocking the encrypted drive

Such a message appears automatically, you don’t have to do anything special, and the name that is included in the message is the registered name that your copy of the software was licensed to (that is, presumably, your name). If the person clicks on the Not you? link, s/he will be presented with the following message:

The built-in message when unlocking the encrypted drive

This message gives the person an opportunity to contact us with the details of the drive found, and we in turn would attempt to locate your email address in our records and let you know that someone has found your lost drive. Note that what happens after that is entirely up to you, whether you want to reward the person who found the drive or not, etc. would be entirely your decision, we would just offer you our help with getting in touch with that person.

Of course, the best solution to any such problem would be not to lose the drive in the first place. However, it’s a good idea to be prepared for such a misfortune before it might happen.

USBCrypt 10.9 released

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

We’ve just released yet another update to our encryption product USBCrypt. This is a maintenance release that includes several fixes and improvements, such as:

  • When encrypting a drive, the size of the Virtual Encrypted Disk can now be selected using units other than MB.
  • The size of the Virtual Encrypted Disk is now displayed when choosing the Properties command from the taskbar icon right-click menu.
  • In some usage scenarios, the Optimize for performance option could cause 100% of the available RAM to be consumed. We have corrected that.

If you are already using a previous version of USBCrypt, you don’t need to remove it: just download and run the new version, and it should update the previous version while keeping your settings and customizations intact.

Happy encrypting!

USBCrypt v.10.8 released

Monday, August 30th, 2010

A new version 10.8 of our encryption software USBCrypt is available now!

This version includes many improvements and fixes, such as:

  • An option to select the preferred optimization of the Virtual Encrypted Disks: you can now choose whether to optimize for performance or for quick removal of the encrypted disks.
  • An option to launch the "autorun" process "As Admininstrator" when starting or stopping the encrypted disks.
  • While the encryption process of a drive is in progress, you can now minimize the USBCrypt window to the taskbar. You may find it handly when encrypting large drives.
  • You can now create custom names for the host disks (other than the default USBCrypt Host disk), to make it easier to recognize different disks in the Explorer windows.
  • Also, you can now pause and resume the encryption process, if you need to temporarily allow other programs to use the full CPU power fo your computer.
  • USBCrypt now warns you if you log off or shut down the computer while a disk is being encrypted.
  • The built-in backup software that comes with Windows 7 or Windows Vista can now recognize the Virtual Encrypted Disks as valid backup destinations for the documents and settings.
  • And more! Please give the new USBCrypt a try.

It’s official: USBCrypt 10.3 released

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

The beta test (and the wait) is over: we are happy to announce the official release of USBCrypt version 10.3!

If you have not tried it yet, please feel free to download the fully functional evaluation version from our web site. If you have any questions or encounter a problem, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Happy encrypting!

Using encrypted drives on computers without USBCrypt installed

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Can you use a drive encrypted with USBCrypt on other computers that don’t have USBCrypt software installed on them? Like the computers at your local library, or at your friend’s house? Yes, you can: when you encrypt a drive with USBCrypt, it automaticvally puts a portable version of USBCrypt soiftware on the drive as well, to allow you to use the drive with other computers. All you need to do is attach the drive to the computer:

Windows usually prompts you to open the drive when you attach it

(If you don’t see such a prompt, use the Start – Computer menu to open your drive). Then double-click on USBCrypt (or USBCrypt.exe) to run it off the drive:

Double-click on USBCrypt to run it off the encrypted drive

OK, there is one catch: if there is no USBCrypt software installed on this computer, then in order to run USBCrypt off the attached encrypted drive the administrator of the computer must give his or her permission for that:

The admininstrator must give the permission to run USBCrypt off the attached drive

This message is not entirely accurate: USBCrypt does not want to make changes to the computer, all it wants is load the encryption driver. Anyway, come to think of it, this message is a good thing: after all, if it were your computer, you wouldn’t want your friends to run arbitrary software on it without your permission, would you? Go ahead, tell the owner of the computer what USBCrypt is all about, and if you ask nicely, the owner should let you continue.

Note that the admininstrator’s consent must be obtained only once per Windows session: the consent remains in effect even if you detach the drive and insert it again: there should be no second prompt asking for the admininstrator’s password (we don’t want to annoy the administrators with our little questions, do we?) Only if the computer is restarted a new admininstrator’s permission must be obtained again.

After that, you can work with your encrypted drive as usual: you can enter your password and start the Virtual Encrypted Disk, stop it, rename it, etc. Note, however, that one cannot encrypt a new drive by running USBCrypt off another encrypted drive as described above. For that, USBCrypt must be installed on the computer the usual way. Happy encrypting!