Recently we explored ways to secure your data on your laptop computer using TrueCrypt.

However, data encryption is not just for your portable devices. In fact, as data theft and loss increases both by public and government organizations as well as at home, so too should the ways that you protect your data assets no matter where it is stored.

One of the first storage devices that I recommend that clients asses for potential threat are removable media such as flash drives and external hard drives. While these devices make storage and portable access to your data easier for you, it also increases the potential for a data breach for you and your business.

While nothing is absolute, using these steps, you can rest assured that your data that lives on a portable storage medium will be more secure:

• Download and install a disc encryption tool such as TrueCrypt (there are others)
• Remove any important files from the disc to be encrypted by deleting them or copying those files to another disc
• Select the encryption method that best meets your needs
• Using your encryption solution, format and encrypt the entire disc (depending the size and encryption method, this can a very long time)
• Mount and move your sensitive data to the newly encrypted disc

It really is as simple as that. Now your data is still easily accessible, portable and safe.