lock a jump drive?

[Phonedog911]

anybody know a good prog for locking up a jump drive so that ppl cant screw with my files if it's ever lost or stolen? i've seen a few sites saying that the passwords can be easily extracted from the lexar security stuff, but i also dont want to be decrypting my files with pgp every time i want to use them. is there a jump drive locker thing that is hard to bypass and will lock regardless of the computer its used on(i read that some will only work on windows machines or only on machines that had software for this installed on them)

[phishphreek]

I don't think that there is a way to "lock" the drive.

I have the sony microvault, and it lets me lock and unlock it every time I want to use it.
http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/Microvault/

I can copy the program that it uses off of it and see if that works on other devices if you'd like.

[Phonedog911]

i heard those things dont work: http://www.techspot.com/story15431.html
but urs is from a different company so maybe it works better or something

[BinaryBrother]

Actually I dont know of a way to lock the drive, but I know something QUICK and similar.... you can download WinRAR, a ZIP compression utility.... All you gotta do is use it like a folder but it has a password utility, not sure how secure it is... but It works for what i use it for... You just create a ziped archive called RAR and it acts just like a folder, but you have a password setting, and its a thousand times better then WinZIP, I like this utility Cuz I just set a RAR file on my desktop and put a password on it, and before i can send or receive any information to the folder, i have to use a password... its quick and easy.... can be found at www.download.com just search fer it... hope thats kinda useful...

[phishphreek]

Originally posted here by Phonedog911
i heard those things dont work: http://www.techspot.com/story15431.html
but urs is from a different company so maybe it works better or something

You'd be correct that the lexar jumpdrives are insecure. However, AFAIK, the sony microvault has not been cracked. It actually has a program on it that you execute (win32) and you set a password along with the amount of space that you want to secure. I can leave 100mb secured and 28mb unsecured. The bad part about it is you have to install the program to run. So, if you don't have admin rights... you can't open it. Thats where the unsecured can be useful.

If you look at the filesize of the program you execute, it grows depending on what you allocated. I've copied that off and looked at it in notepad along with a hex editor. It is encrypted (not sure using which scheme) and you have to decrypt it with the password you choose. If you "reset" the password, you loose your data. If you use a recovery program on it, the data is still encrypted.

[Phonedog911]

i guess i'll have to pgp encrypt anything thats really important. only problem is i'll have to store the keys on the drive also, i guess i'd have to hide them as different filetypes or encrypt them with something else, maybe keep them on a floppy or something. i actually dont have anything thats sensitive enought that i'd need to do this, i was just curious about it