Protecting Your Files on Thumb Drives
by ShahFirst of all - yes, thumb drive!!! please, stop using the word “pen drive.” Thank you.
The software we shall use is AxCrypt - File Encryption for Windows.
AxCrypt is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. And it is small.
Install it - you know the procedure right - next next next finish.
It will ask you something about sending notifications. Just click NO/uncheck notifications.
Provided you’ve installed it in location C:/ the files should be in C:\Program Files\Axon Data\AxCrypt\1.6.4.4
Run AxCrypt.exe just in case the menu items have not appeared yet.
Now, go to Computer - your thumbdrive should be on. In my case, I’m using my old but very cute 128 MB Transcend thumbdrive.
The files present onto it are:
Just right click on it and select Axcrypt and Encrypt.
Enter the passphrase/password.
Click Ok.
Wait…
*yay* The files are encrypted.
Encrypting is done 
But now, it’s time to decrypt the files. You right click on the file(s) you want to decrypt and do as follows.
Enter the password/passphrase.
And now, the file (in this case 1.doc) is available.
AxCrypt not only encrypts and decrypts files on a thumb drive. It can also generate a key-file (without it, nobody can open the file - well, unless you’re using an advanced decryption software with heuristic capabilities aside from brute force and dico attacks.) and encrypt any file on a hard drive or media. You’ll still need AxCrypt on the machine you’re on when decrypting the files. This can be a downside - since there will be platform limitations (windows.)
And for those who want to password protect their thumb drive - use folder lock (I’m not a fan of it.)
Some of you may like PGP or even 7zip to encrypt. It’s your choice. I’m presenting you an alternative which works efficiently on windows. (I’ll post about encryption on linux platform later - after i get the software implementation articles written - remember, this blog is also about business information technology, not just a tech guide.)
Shah
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