
Note that flash drives that come with encryption are generally more expensive than regular flash drives, but they can be worth it if you’re trying to save yourself the headache of setting up encryption yourself. When you purchase an encrypted flash drive, you’ll still be required to select a password. If all the above steps feel overwhelming for you, you can choose to purchase a pre-encrypted flash drive instead. Once you receive this notification, it is safe to remove your flash drive from the computer.

BitLocker is available on supported devices running Windows 10, Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education.

The steps one must take to encrypt a flash drive will vary depending on what operating system your computer uses. This means that if someone were to take your encrypted USB flash drive, they wouldn’t be able to read or access your files without the decryption key. With encryption, your data is translated into an unreadable format that can only be unscrambled with a password or decryption key. What is encryption?Įncryption is a method of securing data. Encrypting your flash drive will protect your data from cyber-attacks.

If you plug your flash drive into an infected computer, your flash drive can also become infected by viruses or malware and infect other devices that you plug your flash drive into. There are some other security risks that thumb drive owners should be aware of.
