I'm a lot more likely to misplace a flashdrive than a desktop computer or laptop, so I got interested in the various security wares different drive makers supply.
Very quickly I found that (at least for one major encryption program) mistakenly yanking the drive prematurely corrupts the secure folder and causes a world of problems. A dumb but easy way to lose vital data.
Also, I wonder if antivirus & firewall programs can do their job properly on files within an encrypted folder. Do they get scanned as they 'emerge'?
Can some of you folks who understand this stuff discuss the right way to set up a drive's data area?:]
Thanks!
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> mistakenly yanking the drive prematurely corrupts the secure folder and causes a world of problems. A dumb but easy way to lose vital data.Also, I wonder if antivirus & firewall programs can do their job properly on files within an encrypted folder. Do they get scanned as they 'emerge'?
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
what ever the anti virus is able to do it will do also on the files read from the container file. It will sure also attempt to scan the container as such, reporting that this is encrypted and thus not readable for the scanner.
It will scan the container, find seemingly random garbage and treat it as such.
The data that is then unencrypted (because you're using it) will likely be scanned (depending on how the AV program and encryption program work) as well.
Vintage!
"Some sticks are around using hardware encryption"
Besides the many security & appearance variations, I'm now also finding important speed differences between old & new drives from the same big name maker! Caveat Emptor!
FYI: TOSHIBA has been selling those 'retro-50s' looking TransMemory drives (aerodynamic white body with anodyzed cap) specifically for their Vista Ready Boost in laptops. They are among the fastest I've tried.
HOWEVER- TOSHIBA is now selling a smaller, all-black 'ruggedized-looking' TransMemory drive in the exact same (infernal clamshell) packaging; the backing billboard is identical, even to the model number.
If you have Vista on your Toshiba laptop, you can go right-click on the flashdrive, and go to the Properties>ReadyBoost Tab.
The white Toshiba 'secretarial' version is tested for ReadyBoost and passes. The black Toshiba 'milspec' version fails the speed test:
"This device does not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system."
I'd think the faster drive would make a huge difference in the practicality of a Portable App, especially one like OOo.
So far, Verbatim, Lexar, Sandisk, and the older Toshibas pass Vista's 'speed barrier', apparently regardless of size, at least up to 8G.
Any file can get messed up if you prematurely remove the USB drive.
Encrypted "container" programs (e.g. Truecrypt) sometimes let you make a backup of the "header", which is the most critical part of the file. If you lose a bit in the header, you lose access to all the files whereas if you just lose a bit where a file is stored inside the container, you lose that file.
Anyway, the message should be, keep backups, not just of the headers, but of all the files in the container.
MC