USB External Drives and Encryption
If you must transfer or store sensitive data on a physical medium and cannot use other secure data transport methods, that media must be encrypted. An effort has been underway to deploy a software agent to ensure that computers used by individuals who attest Yes in AMIE that they may access or receive High Risk Data will only be able to write to encrypted USB media. See more information on the encrypted USB enforcement program.
In general, the flash drive we recommend is the Apricorn Secure Key. For larger capacity external drives, we recommend the Apricorn Aegis external drives. These devices have a keypad and require the code to unlock and will work on both Mac and Windows computers.
TDS can provide one SecureKey to School of Medicine personnel for use with sensitive data. If you don't already have one, you can request one using the button below. While access to campus is limited, you may need to coordinate a specific time or request delivery by US mail.
You can manually encrypt your external USB drive using your operating system's native encryption software.
For Windows: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-bitlocker-encryption-windows-10
(Note: Some methods require erasing the drive, so make sure to back up any necessary information beforehand. Also, it's possible there may be problems with compatibility, if you attempt to use the encrypted drive on an older computer.)