Encrypted External Hard Drive

If you have an external hard drive and data that may be sensitive that you want to keep secure, then you should be thinking in terms of an encrypted drive. That way at least if it is hacked into or is stolen or lost, the chances are that your information will not be accessed.

Encrypted drives usually have their own processors that are built into the drive casing and they scramble the data that is saved to the disk. Some drives have the chip actually hardwired into the drive circuitry which is called full disk encryption. Usually a drive works whereby you set up a PIN number or password which then allows you to save, copy and backup your files as you would normally. These passcodes can sometimes be entered by a physical keypad on the exterior of the drive casing or via software when the drive is recognised by the computer. Therefore if a person does not have the PIN or password they are unable to access and read information from the drive. Even data recovery will not work because the information will still appear scrambled and only able to be read by the key unlocked processor or software.

AES is the most widely used encryption standard and typically uses 128 or 256 bit encryption that is to government and military standards

If you travel a lot with a portable external hard drive then it would be very wise to have a model that offers encryption as a feature. There is no preventing loss of a drive due to theft or it being left on a train, but at least if that does happen you can feel safe in the knowledge that your important files will stay locked and safe.