But in our example, we are going to create an encrypted and therefore impenetrable space on part of a USB key. It is also possible to encrypt the latter in full. The advantage of the application is that it allows you to have an encrypted safe inside a medium.
How to encrypt a USB stick or hard drive with VeraCrypt? This is an important argument for those who seek transparency and fear possible backdoors as one might suspect with opaque tools. It is an Open Source tool, constantly improved and whose source code is accessible to everyone. In addition, it supports three powerful encryption algorithms: AES, Serpent and Twofish. First of all, it is more accessible, being free and multiplatform (Windows, MacOS, Linux). There are several reasons for choosing VeraCrypt. This is based on version 7.a of TrueCrypt and is still maintained to this day. Members of the community then decided to take up the torch with a new app called VeraCrypt. But unfortunately, its maintenance was suddenly stopped in 2014. Why VeraCrypt?Ī few years ago, many users trusted TrueCrypt, an open source application that made it possible to encrypt any USB key or hard drive by turning it into a digital safe. We will show you how to protect a USB drive with this cross-platform tool and accessible to everyone.
Among the alternative solutions, we recommend the VeraCrypt tool which is available on Windows, Linux as well as on MacOS. If you are using a home version, then Bitlocker is not a feature available to you. And this is particularly the case for Windows 10.
But the utility is only available in Pro and higher versions of the system. It allows to encrypt USB drives, HDDs and other storage media so that they are unreadable unless you have a password. The BitLocker tool natively integrated into Windows since the Vista version of the system is quite popular. But you can also opt for VeraCrypt, a free, cross-platform application to encrypt your storage media. The Windows BitLocker tool allows to encrypt disks efficiently.
Because you are never safe from loss or theft, it may be important to encrypt your USB key or external hard drive to prevent confidential data from falling into the hands of strangers.