Whether you use a laptop, a USB flash drive (or UFD, also known as memory stick, flash drive, pen drive etc.) or a CDROM, your data may not be totally secure. UFDs have become ubituitous over the past few years and are used by people to carry documents and data around with them. Most suffer from lacking any form of security so that when lost, the person that finds the device will be able to access to all of the data stored on it.

The transfer of student data is governed by UK law; guidance concerning this is available from Becta (click here) and Sandwell MBC (click here, password required). Sandwell MBC advise that data should not be taken out of school. Consult your school's Senior Information Risk Owner or your headteacher before doing this.

Secure UFDs can be purchased, these include software to allow the user to encrypt the drive so that the user has to enter a password to access the data. Laptop hard disks or folders can also be secured. Secure UFDs tend to be more expensive than the generic, non encrypted, type. It is possible to secure data on cheaper devices using third party sofware, including some free "open source" software such as TrueCrypt.

Click on the links below for information regarding the use of Truecrypt to secure your UFD.

To download truecrypt:

http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php

To create a Truecrypt volume/partition on your storage device:

TrueCrypt - How to create a volume.pdf

(Broadband Sandwell are able to assist you with this process for a nominal charge. Please contact us for details.)

To access a volume/partition previously created on a storage device:

TrueCrypt - How to access encrypted area.pdf