Data Backup Digest

SD cards are a great method for storage. They are small, light and capable of holding a lot of data. Phones, cameras and tablets are all capable of holding SD cards. A lot of them come with them, so chances are you might be using one without even realising it.
Of course, as is the case with all data storage, you are going to want to keep everything safe and secure. If your device goes missing with your SD card inside then it’s going to be easy for someone to view all the data on it. Simply password protecting the device isn’t good enough. An SD card can easily be removed and plugged into a computer, taking all the data with it. Whether you’re storing family photos or financial information on your SD card, you need to take a step to protect yourself.
One method you can use is encryption. This essentially locks down the data on the SD card and makes it so that a password must be entered before any data can be viewed. There are various programs available to download online that will let you encrypt your SD card. This article will go through a small number of them.
The first is SecuBox, a tool from Aiko Solutions, which encrypts SD data on portable Windows devices. With SecuBox installed, anything written to the SD card will be encrypted with industry standard AES 256-bit protection. According to the website, the algorithm in use ensures that the device will suffer no performance knocks during the encryption process. The encryption is transparent, meaning that if the SD card is inserted into a different device then it’ll just show scrambled characters. When using it on your own device, the software will ask you for your password each time you access your SD card data.
One of the most popular encryption software is TrueCrypt. This open-source tool will work on a variety of operating systems and offers automatic, real-time and transparent encryption. You can choose to encrypt a certain sector of the SD card or the whole thing. Bear in mind that you will need a travelling copy of the TrueCrypt program in order to access your data on various devices.
A third tool you can use is USB Security from Kakasoft. Despite the name, this tool can also be used to encrypt your SD card. To do so, download the program and run it on your SD card. From here you will be asked to enter a password. You will have to enter this password every time you plug in the SD card, otherwise you won’t be able to access your data.
If you are looking for something compatible with your phone then you should check out your application store. On Android, for example, there are numerous offerings from different developers. Some of them are free, while others come with a price tag and more premium features. One such program is Encryption Manager, an app that comes both in a free and paid edition. You can encrypt using either 128 or 256 keys and you can set access either based on a master pin or text password.