Ramblings on S&P USB drives...

A great addition to your BOB is a USB flash drive. A flash drive allows you to carry copies of your personal documents, legal documents, insurance policies,photos, proof of identity, files, windows settings etc. So when you hafta leave dodge you will have digital proof of who you are, what you done, what you have and all sorts of other info.





I prefer the 'hardened' version by Corsair called the Survivor. Tough little Son of a gun and water resistant to deeper than you can swim ;)

With 4 GB of data protected by TrueCrypt I have pictures, .pdf and word documents at my disposal should I be stranded from home. Also my IE Favorites as well as email and snail mail addy's are on here so I can 'borrow' a computer and have access to my needs!





For work I also carry some free spyware/antivirus programs, Registry editor and network configuration utilities that my company does not/will not provide. These drives are not 'hardened' but work quite well for my needs. Add a few S&P .pdf's to read in my spare time and you have a bunch of info for your needs!

I encourage all of you to read Shane's Blog (good stuff) about listening to Katrina. Alot of my thoughts on this came from this Blog.

Shane suggests you convert these files to digital format and keep them with you in your BOB (his BOB has a laptop). I suggest you have several copies of this data and ENCRYPT it!!!

From Shane's Blog:



Letters, postcards, and other correspondence.

Data and files from your place of business, if allowed by company policy.

Digitized copies of video or sound recordings that cannot be replaced.

Digital address book. (Windows Address Book is actually portable. Search for .wab files.) You can print this out and have a hard copy in your BOB. If a digital address book doesn't work for you, then keep a good paper one.

Investment and retirement account information.

Information about other financial accounts.

Information regarding membership in clubs and organizations.

If it is important keep a copy of it!!!



Finally, I learned of this flashdrive from the Preparedness Podcast Folksin episode 9. Sounds pretty secure. They are pricey but sometimes your data is as well!


From Iron Key

Hardware Encryption
Your IronKey is literally packed with the latest and most secure encryption technologies, all enabled by the powerful onboard Cryptochip. Rather than employing "homegrown" cryptographic algorithms that have not undergone rigorous cryptoanalysis, IronKey follows industry best practices and uses only well-established and thoroughly tested cryptographic algorithms.

All of your data on the IronKey drive is encrypted in hardware using AES CBC-mode encryption.

Always-On Encryption
Because your IronKey implements data encryption in the hardware Cryptochip, all data written to your drive is always encrypted. There is no way to accidentally turn it off or for malware or criminals to disable it. Also, it runs many times faster than software encryption, especially when storing large files or using the on-board portable Firefox browser.

Encryption Keys
The encryption keys used to protect your data are generated in hardware by a FIPS 140-2 compliant True Random Number Generator on the IronKey Cryptochip. This ensures maximum protection via the encryption ciphers. The keys are generated in the Cryptochip when you initialize your IronKey, and they never leave the secure hardware to be placed in flash memory or on your computer.

Two-Factor Authentication
Beyond simply protecting the privacy of your data on the IronKey flash drive, the IronKey Cryptochip incorporates advanced Public Key Cryptography ciphers that allow you to lock down your online IronKey account. That way you must have your IronKey device, in addition to your password, to access your online account. This highly complex process runs behind the scenes, giving you state-of-the-art protection from phishers, hackers and other online threats.

Good stuff! Thanks for reading! 73

later,
ZA