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Need to send some data encrypted on a USB stick. I'd rather the client didn't have to install software to decrypt it..... any suggestions on what I should try?
Bitlocker if win 10?
Win 7 at my end
Does it NEED to be on a stick? How will it be delivered and what (broadly) is on it?
Any sort of post/courier and your at the mercy of the post/courier. If it does get delayed or go missing then you'll be the one who "lost it"
You could encrypt and upload to a secure area with two factor auth. (e.g. Box)
Just worth thinking about... I prefer making it someone else's responsibility/problem.
What type of data?
Drop it into a password protected Excel file?
Does it have to go via USB stick? A service like Dropbox can also encrypt files.
Password zip file?
Password protected zip file?
Win 7 at my end
Looks like it is also available on Win 7 - take a look
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd490967.aspx
or
It's a bunch of PDFs that I'm sending
PDF has built in password protection, if you don't have the Adobe tools there are third party ones for you to assign the password. Your client then just needs to know what it is.
You can encrypt them individually, then zip them and encrypt the zip file.
However if the media gets lost ... you still "lost them" so it kinda depends what's in the PDF's.
How sensitive is the data ...would it matter if they got lost but you were reasonably confident none can read them?
What happens to the USB drive when delivered?
I have used free, online tools to remove the password protection from PDFs in the past when a customer has forgotten the password so I wouldn't necessarily recommend going down this route!PDF has built in password protection,
Really depends how secret the info is... also bear in mind you'll also have to securely & separately send them the password/key
Yeah - you can't really encrypt/decrypt without software - it's software that does the encryption!
The closest you can get is Bitdefender in Windows and I think Finder in OS X can encrypt but I've never used it.
As above, you'll also have to figure out a way to send the password to decrypt it.
Posting a USB is pretty bonkers, though. If it's only a few PDFs, password protect a zip file and email it through your works exchange server. You can tell them the password over Skype or a phonecall or something - they'll only write it down on a post-it note and leave it on their desk whatever you do.
I have used free, online tools to remove the password protection from PDFs in the past when a customer has forgotten the password so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going down this route!
Although true the issue (and why I asked) is what happens to the USB key and files AFTER they are received...
Personally I use PGP but if this was like super confidential I'd encrypt the PDF's then zip them then PGP the Zip file.
What I'd not want to do was then stick them on a USB and send them somewhere because AFTER all that someone can just decrypt them and leave em lying about not to mention losing the USB key in transit aka NHS.
You can tell them the password over Skype or a phonecall or something – they’ll only write it down on a post-it note and leave it on their desk whatever you do.
Yep except its now decrypted anyway (unless you add the later of individual PDF security as a last layer)
On the other hand if they just need to read these you can use Box or similar then delete them after.
As above, you’ll also have to figure out a way to send the password to decrypt it.
Telephone works remarkably well for that stuff really
and BitLocker of course
7zip can do self extracting (so no need for them to have software) encryption, works pretty well
Use a self encrypting USB like this
I still use Truecrypt. It's been discontinued by its authors but still works fine.
It’s a bunch of PDFs that I’m sending
are you sending them to the middle of the amazon? 😆
You should hire the AWS Snowmobile.
I know herself uses a data suitcase as it's quicker to air transport it than fanny around with ftp sites. You could chain it to the courier as well for safe transit.
You should probably say what you want to protect against and how serious you want the protection to be.
General principles...
Who owns the data and who is responsible for it?
If it's them then they specify how to handle it.
If they are then they specify how it's done.
Personally I'd probably go with a web transfer.
I've asked whether they're OK to download an encrypted zip file from dropbox or google drive. Client is a very large law firm with very strict policies (yeah, I know.... USB!) - I normally upload to their servers via sftp but this is going to a different office.
Can you sftp to their other office, get confirmation and sign off then let them transfer?
Can you get them to send a secure courier (at their expense and risk) that you sign over?
If they lose this who does it impact (them or you)
If you can’t email then the contents I presume are super sensitive to some party.
Court documents..... their loss wouldn't impact me other than our company rep - so yes it would!!
I'll speak to IT and see if they can transfer between the offices after my sftp
We use Symantec end point protection on our unclass USB stuff, it automatically adds a few files to the USB stick as well as encrypting the contents so when you plug it in the other end you get prompted for a password from the app on the USB stick and then it decrypts (assuming you have the right password :p ). We also use 7zip for basic file level encryption (it's AES-256), not actually tried it self-extracting but a post above seems to indicate that's fine.