manual

ManualsBrandsSuper Talent Technology ManualsUSB flash drivesExpress RAM Cache

Encryption and USB Drives: Whitepaper

Countering the Threat to the

Digital Lifestyle

Encryption and USB Drives

8GB of Data

2,000 songs - or your company marketing strategies

2,500 vacation pictures - or your company employee records

4,000 e-books - or your personal diary

Super Talent Technology, Inc.

2077 N. Capitol Ave., San Jose, CA 95132 ⋅ Tel: (408)934-2560 ⋅ Fax: (408)719-5020

www.supertalent.com

Summary of content (9 pages)

PAGE 1
Encryption and USB Drives: Whitepaper Countering the Threat to the Digital Lifestyle Encryption and USB Drives 8GB of Data 2,000 songs - or your company marketing strategies 2,500 vacation pictures - or your company employee records 4,000 e-books - or your personal diary Super Talent Technology, Inc. 2077 N. Capitol Ave., San Jose, CA 95132 ⋅ Tel: (408)934-2560 ⋅ Fax: (408)719-5020 www.supertalent.
PAGE 2
The Need to Protect Digital Data .......................................................................... 3 What is Encryption ................................................................................................ 4 Why Encryption is Needed ................................................................................ 5 How Digital Data is Encrypted .............................................................................. 5 Manual Encryption................................................
PAGE 3
The Need to Protect Digital Data Before the widespread use of the Internet during the 1990’s, only the military protected their digital data using encryption. But, as digital information became a bigger part of everyday life and in order to continue to protect privacy, encryption became more important to businesses, companies, and even to the average user.
PAGE 4
As illustrated in the graph, thumb drive users regularly carry confidential information for work purposes. If the USB drive is lost or stolen and the data is not protected, then companies can be hurt if sensitive information falls in the wrong hands [3]. Thus, a method needs to be implemented so that data can be kept restricted from people who are not supposed to have access. Data encryption provides the best method to protect confidential information.
PAGE 5
encryption key which used a complex arrangement of spools and wires to encode messages. The ability to send secure coded messages gave the German navy a strategic advantage. U-boats used Enigma machines to conceal messages containing convoy sightings and their periodic positions. Without the Enigma, these messages could not be kept secret since they were constantly intercepted by the Allies.
PAGE 6
connected to a computer, and then encrypting them before the user is allowed to disconnect the drive. This encryption method is less risky than the manual type of encryption since it is automatic; the user does not have to remember to encrypt their data [4]. Transparent Encryption Completely automatic, transparent encryption is the most robust encryption scheme. Data is encrypted as it is written and, as a result, requires no interaction from the user.
PAGE 7
Processor Figure 3: Software-based Encryption Process [5] The encryption process is slower than hardware encryption because bottlenecks occur when unencrypted data is processed into encrypted data due to the strain it puts on the processor. Bottleneck size increases as the amount of files to be encrypted increases [5]. Not only that, the price to have software-based encryption on the USB drive is higher than hardware-based encryption.
PAGE 8
There are other features that can be added to hardware-based encryption. An example is Smart Chips. Smart Chips do not allow the Flash memory chips to be removed from a USB drive. If the Flash chips are removed, the data is automatically deleted [7]. Another feature is Locking & Deletion, which “runs off a separate chip that deletes and re-writes over the data so it cannot be restored [7].” This situation happens when the wrong password is given too often.
PAGE 9
and the final output cipher text. A set of reverse rounds are applied to transform cipher-text back into the original plain-text using the same encryption key [9].” Increasing key sizes not only scrambles the data better but also increases the complexity of the cipher algorithm. Both software- and hardware-based encryption employ AES. AES improves on earlier encryption methods by providing faster encryption and increased security due to its larger key size.