Tuesday, July 4, 2023 – Here’s a simple tip for protecting your sensitive info – Beware these insidious ‘Help the Wounded Vets’ scams

Do you often carry a USB flash drive containing sensitive information along with you when you travel?

Do you have info that you’d really prefer to keep private stored on a flash drive that remains on your desk next to your computer?

The fact is, most of us keep one or more USB flash drives that we use to store financial information or some other type of sensitive info on hand at all times.

Have you ever considered what could happen if yours becomes lost or stolen, effectively handing all of that sensitive info over to someone who might end up using it for nefarious purposes?

The danger of that happening is quite real, but there’s a very easy way to avoid it: Store your info on a USB flash drive that’s encrypted and protected with a strong password.

There are several ways to accomplish that:

1 – If your computer’s operating system provides a native encryption tool (Windows’ Bitlocker, for example) you can use that tool to encrypt and password-protect the info stored on the drive.

2 – Use a third-party open-source tool to encrypt the drive’s contents. You’ll find several good ones to choose from in this article by our friends at TechRadar.

3 – Purchase a quality USB flash drive with encryption technology already built-in. There are several good ones out there but I really like this one from Sandisk.

Of the three methods mentioned above, I prefer #3 because it’s so simple, easy and effective. Simply open the drive on your computer and assign it a strong password.

Bottom line: Keeping sensitive information on an unencrypted flash drive is dangerous, especially if you carry that drive along with you as you travel.

Secure your sensitive info by encrypting it and choosing a strong password to protect the encrypted data.

Tech news that caught my eye…

• Why Apple is moving your health information to the iPad

• Meta’s Twitter competitor launches on July 6th, according to the App Store

• Valve won’t publish games that feature copyright-infringing AI assets

• These Samsung phone flaws have been exploited by spyware

• Apple plans to launch a monitor that stays on when you shut down your Mac

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Thanks so much, and have an amazing day.

Your tech buddy,

Rick Rouse
https://www.RicksDailyTips.com