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Pre-loading your USB flash drive to start-up on plug-in

It is a good idea to start up a program or presentation once your customer plugs-in the flash drive into a computer or a laptop. The simple functionality of displaying your brand or company information can be rewarding; however there is a significant downside.

It can be interesting and appealing to see your presentation a couple of times; however seeing the presentation every time you plug-in the flash drive into the computer can become increasingly annoying. Do not forget that the start-up will occur each time the drive is plugged in. After a while your company or brand may not be associated with a great feeling, but with a complete nuisance and bother.

Since the automatic start-up functionality can be easily abused by virus makers and malware, many operating systems include the functionality to deactivate the automatic start-up feature. Therefore, the program that you planned to start automatically on the customer’s computer will most likely not start.

While it may seem as a good idea to start-up your presentation or a program automatically, in practice it is not worth the time. Even if the start-up functionality is set to work on your customer’s computer, the automatic nature of your content can be very annoying or bothersome instead of useful or entertaining.

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Secure your data with strong encryption

Flash drives and SSDs (solid state drive) are popular for storing and backing up large amount of data. They are compact and easy to use; however they are also easy to misplace and it is easy for someone to steal these devices.

How do you protect your data? Even if you store pictures and simple documents, there is no reason why your data should be comprimised when it gets into someone’s hands.

The simplest way to protect your data is by encrypting it with strong encryption and strong password. Many people including the author don’t want the hassle of dealing with entering passwords, remembering them, and just the whole ordeal with dealing the “hurdle” that prevents immediate access to data.

While some of us have been delaying with securing of our data, TrueCrypt folks have been busy making encryption of data easy. The encryption software package is small and is available for free. The software can encrypt files, partitions, or whole disks with automatic, real-time encryption with strong encryption standards such as AES.

Installation of the TrueCrypt software is simple and is guided with a helpful wizard. Once the installation is complete and the password is selected, working with your files has never been easier. When working with encrypted partitions or encrypted flash drives or SSDs, the password needs to be entered only once and then your data is accessible and can be used just like on any drive. Once your drive is unplugged from the computer, the data is secure and protected.

When ordering your flash drives, consider security for your own flash drives as well as for your customers. The small TrueCrypt installation can be pre-loaded on your flash drives for free. Secure data should not be optional, protect your flash drives, computer, or SSDs with simple to use encryption package that works seamlessly with your regular computer use.

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USB flash drives and Cloud storage

Fast speed Internet connections are now a requirement for even the basic Web browsing.  The computers and laptops also have to stay ahead to meet the ever expanding requirements of numerous videos, music, and flash animations.

The combination of computer power and ever increasing need to store more data, generates an equal need to have the data backup. Many solutions are being offered by large power houses such as Microsoft and Google for cloud applications; additionally there are many more that offer cloud backup as well as plain data storage.

What is cloud computing anyway? The basic concept involves networking a large number of server computers to enable data storage or application environments for the end user such as yourself. These server computers may be sitting on the property of the company from which you receive the service or distributed in many locations all over the world.

The cloud computing asks you to put your trust in the service provider ability to keep your data safe and secure. Do you have the trust in your cloud service provider?

For those people who must answer “No” for any reason, the local storage of sensitive data is much more comforting. The flash memory data storage such as flash drives and SSD (solid state drives) are growing larger and offer faster speeds with USB 3.0. The ability to use strong encryption algorithms to protect the data and keeping the data close raises the comfort to a level which the cloud computing has a hard time to reach.

Cloud computing is a great way to store, backup, create, and organize casual data and documents. If you have sensitive data or you don’t feel the unconditional trust for the cloud service provider, consider the flash memory route with the encrypted flash drives and SSDs.