How to Protect Your Flashdrive with a Password: A Step-by-Step Guide

Protecting the confidentiality of data stored in your flashdrive is important. In today's digital world, where information can be easily copied or stolen, it's crucial to secure your portable storage devices. One effective way to protect your flashdrive is by setting a password. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of encrypting and password-protecting your flashdrive on different operating systems.

Before You Begin

Ensure that your flashdrive has enough storage capacity for the data you wish to encrypt, as encrypted files take up more space than their unencrypted counterparts.
Make a backup of any essential data stored in the flashdrive before proceeding.
Remember your password and keep it in a secure location. Losing this information may result in losing access to your encrypted data.

Protecting a Flashdrive on Windows

Insert your flashdrive into your computer and wait for it to be recognized.
Right-click the drive icon, then choose Format. In the new window that appears, make sure that the file system is set to NTFS or exFAT, and click Start. This will format the drive, which will delete all data on it, so ensure you have a backup if necessary.
After formatting is complete, right-click the flashdrive icon, choose Give this drive a drive letter and path, then select a drive letter and click OK.
Press Windows key + X to open the Power User menu, then choose Disk Management. Right-click your flashdrive, choose Secure, then Set Password. Set a strong password and confirm it before clicking OK. Your flashdrive is now encrypted and protected by a password.

Protecting a Flashdrive on macOS

Insert your flashdrive into your Mac and wait for it to be recognized.
Open the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder, and launch Disk Utility. Find your flashdrive in the left sidebar, select it, then click Erase. In the new window that appears, choose a format like APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), set the security level to Secure Erase, and click Erase All Data. This will delete all data on your flashdrive, so ensure you have a backup if necessary.
After erasing is complete, go back to your desktop and create a new folder. Right-click it, then choose New Text File. Name this file with a memorable name like "Password" or "Key". Copy and paste the following command into the file:
```
#!/bin/sh
openssl enc -aes256 -salt -in "$1" -out "$1.enc" && \
mv "$1" "$1.orig" && \
open "$1.orig"
```
Replace $1 with the name of your flashdrive, for example, /Volumes/My\ Flashdrive. Save and close the file.
Open a Terminal window, navigate to the folder you just created, and give it execute permissions using the command:
```
chmod +x <folder-name>
```
To use this script, type ./<folder-name> /Volumes/My\ Flashdrive in Terminal and press Enter. A prompt will appear asking for a password to encrypt your flashdrive. Type the password and press Enter. Your flashdrive is now encrypted and protected by a password.

Protecting a Flashdrive on Linux

Insert your flashdrive into your Linux system and wait for it to be recognized.
Open a terminal window and type lsblk or fdisk -l to find the device path of your flashdrive, which might look like /dev/sdb1.

Create a new directory for your encrypted data using the command:

sudo mkdir /mnt/my_flashdrive && sudo chown -R <your-username>:<your-username> /mnt/my_flashdrive

Create a new file named encryptfs.sh in the home directory using your preferred text editor, for example, nano ~/encryptfs.sh. Paste the following script into this file:
```
#!/bin/bash
mount -t encryptfs /dev/$1 /mnt/my_flashdrive -o pass=<password> && \
umount /mnt/my_flashdrive && \
echo "Enter your password to unlock the drive:" && \
mount -t encryptfs /dev/$1 /mnt/my_flashdrive
```
Replace <password> with a strong password. Save and close the file.
Make the script executable using the command:
```
sudo chmod +x ~/encryptfs.sh
```
To use this script, open a terminal window and type ./encryptfs.sh /dev/sdb1 (replace /dev/sdb1 with the correct device path for your flashdrive). Enter your password when prompted to unlock the drive. Your flashdrive is now encrypted and protected by a password.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully created an encrypted and password-protected flashdrive on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Remember that losing your password may result in losing access to your data, so be sure to keep it in a safe and secure location. Happy secure storing!

Published August, 2017