USB Ports - Risks and Safety Precautions

By Eshanvi Smith

USB might be termed as the latest craze in the industrial computer components industry, but this fashionable accessory can also be a root cause of disaster, if proper precautions are not adhered to. These thumb nail size marvels might be considered as one of the most convenient computer accessory, but it can be a great threat to Internet security as well.

The threat involved with the USB ports are the cyber criminals that are writing viruses and worms and thus infecting the USB ports. As soon as the user enters this infected port in the home PC, they can load the bug which can result in crippling the computer hardware. Their small size is one reason that makes them easier to lose and if some important data contained in it is not encrypted, there is chance that the USB ports can be tampered with, resulting in identity theft and other types of cyber crime.

This write up throws some light on this sensitive issue, which otherwise gets unnoticed. Following are some of the precautionary measures that can prevent the occurrence of these crimes to a large extent. Follow these tips to minimize the risk of your USB being hacked.

1. One of the most reliable way to prevent identification theft is to make sure that you do not load or carry any kind of personal information on the USB products.

2. Encryption is an important aspect to be taken care of if you are to put any personal or sensitive data in your USB's. Various reliable encryption programs are available and one only needs to download them. By encryption, one can be sure that the information on the USB cannot be read without being decoded first.

3. Using secure devices is another option. Various technologically advanced USB drives have added features like fingerprint authentication and built-in encryption that proves great in making this device hacker-protected. Invest in one of these USB ports that are much more user friendly and safe at the same time.

4. Keeping these computer components in a safe place is the most important tip of all. As they are very small, they are at a greater risk of being lost. Choose a USB drop spot which is easier to access and remember. This will ensure that you do not lose them easily.

5. If possible, try to keep separate devices for home as well as office purpose as there is a chance that you can accidentally introduce a virus to you home computer courtesy to one of the infected systems at office. As per the New York security consultant, Scudder, it is important to know the norms of any company before plugging your USB to the network.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eshanvi_Smith

Eco USB

By Matt Money

More and more businesses are becoming aware of their carbon footprint and negative impact on the environment and they are taking steps to counteract or balance their carbon emissions. One of the most recent way to help combat this is to switch to green or eco friendly promotional items!

Every business at some point will use promotional items to promote their company, service or brand and with the introduction of eco friendly promotional items it is now possible to do this and reduce their carbon footprint. Eco friendly promotional items are made from recycled materials or materials that do not have a negative impact on the environment. Instead of using newly manufactured materials they opt for a recycled version. The eco products have exactly the same promotional impact with their clients but with the added benefit of promoting a green and ethical business message. Everyone likes to be seen to be green and to be playing their part in the fight against global warming.

One of the most popular items to come out of the Far East in recent times is the eco usb. These portable storage devices allow users to drag and drop documents from their computer onto the memory of the flash drive and take it with them wherever they go i.e home or on business trips. The eco usb products feature a shell made from recycled plastic or in some cases bamboo. Bamboo is a very popular option and the bamboo is often sourced from sustainable sources. In fact bamboo is one of the fastest growing woody plants on the planet and some species can grown up to 1 metre per day!

The eco usb flash drives like all promotional products can be custom printed with your company logo and are a great way of promoting a green message. They are often used to hand out at events or exhibitions and the internal memory can also be uploaded with a company logo or presentation. If your company has considered purchasing flash drives in recent times then take a look at the range of eco usb products as an alternative. They work in exactly the same way but you can be sure that you will be playing your part in keeping the planet green!

Matthew Money is the online editor for USBflash which is a leading UK supplier of eco usb products and a range of promotional usb flash drives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Money

Ready Boost Your Computer With a USB Flash Drive

By Derek Rogers
If you have found that your computer is running a little slower and you want to speed up games, videos and the Windows operating system itself, there could be a solution. Since Windows is able to access memory much faster than it can get things off the hard drive, recently used programs run more quickly than ones that you haven't touched in a while. Unfortunately, newer versions of Windows, including Vista, require a lot more memory than earlier ones.

It's possible to buy new memory just about everywhere, but there are some reasons this might not be the best solution. Inexperienced users may have trouble installing these cards and it's possible to run out of extra slots. The solution that can make things easier is your USB port, plug a flash drive into it and you will be able to add a little more to your system.

Using Ready Boost along with a USB flash drive allows you to easily and quickly add more memory to your computer, speeding things up for software and you're OS. It's just a matter of plugging in the drive, installing the program and adding the extra memory to your computer. Make sure you have a flash drive and a computer capable of USB 2.0. Once you plug the drive into your computer, you will get an autoplay dialog box, including a selection for "Speed up my system". Turn on "Use this device" and you will get more memory! Try out your most resource heavy program, like a game or computer art program, to test the results. The flash drive will be used just like the RAM inside the computer, offering a boost in speed.

Ready Boost doesn't just work with USB drives, either, it will also work with SD cards and Compact Flash cards, such as the ones used in a digital camera. However, your computer must have a built in card slot to use these, external card readers won't work. In addition, you must have Windows Vista and a card that offers Ready Boost compatibility. Look on the packaging to find a Ready Boost logo.

Only one flash drive can be used per computer and there are size limitations, you can only use Ready Boost with memory devices between 256 Mb and 4 Gb in capacity. Larger or smaller drives don't work. The speed boost you will get depends on the capacity of the drive. Try using a USB flash drive with the same capacity as your computer's memory.

Therefore, a 1 Gb RAM computer should use a 1 Gb flash drive; smaller flash drives would significantly reduce the speed you'd get from using Ready Boost. It's also important to remember that you can't use this flash drive for file storage while it's being used by Ready Boost. You will have to change the settings under Properties, or reformat the drive if you want to do this.

For Vista computers that need a boost of speed, a USB flash drive and Ready Boost could be the solution. Remember to pay attention to the drive size and other factors and you will soon be surfing, gaming and working a whole lot faster.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derek_Rogers

How to Password Protect and Partition a USB Flash Drive

By Derek RogersKnowing how to password protect and partition a USB flash drive is very important to the safety, integrity, and manageability of your data.

When you partition a USB flash drive, you make it so that you can write software into your flash memory while at once running software in another bank of your flash memory (thus you will need a flash memory with at least two banks; one bank = four memory chips). Partitioning is used to enhance manageability, performance, or data availability.

The BIOS command for partitioning your USB flash drive is: Router (config) #partition flash partitions [size1 size2]

Note: if you are running a Cisco 1600 or 3600 series router (modular, multiservice access platforms), your command would be: Router (config) #partition flash-filesystem: [number-of-partitions] [partition-size]

There is software called BootIt that you can download and use to cause Windows XP or Vista to allow you multiple USB flash drive partitions by "Flipping the Removable Bit" that restricts partitioning. However, this software is potentially harmful to your flash memory drive and is not recommended. Two other flash memory partition software packages that are more reliable are Advanced Partition Manager 6.0 (lets you create, copy, resize, and move hard drive partitions without data loss), and Rohos Mini Drive (lets you create a password protected USB drive partition on a guest computer).

Cisco routers permit more than two flash drive partitions (it all depends on how many banks your flash drive has). Every other platform will permit just two partitions.

For password protection of your USB flash memory drive, there is a free program called Cryptainer LE that many people use. Now, to use this program you need to slice up your drive into segments (the software does that for you), but the maximum volume size per segment is 25Mb--meaning that a lot of files that aren't the usual text files can't be protected unless you use multiple drives, which is very cumbersome. Another program that is similar but isn't quite as restricted is Folder Lock, which allows you to set up a password protection system on your PC and then export it to your USB flash drive and then put different folders under digital lock and key in different "lockers".

Another program called Securestix (not free) let's you pick and choose which USB flash drive files you will password protect. Let's face it: some files that are highly valuable to you just don't have any meaning to a would-be identity thief.

Some flash memory drive devices come with password protection software. These typically allow you to designate some files as "public" or "private", and some might even come with fingerprint reading security programming.

Again, knowing how to password protect and partition a USB flash drive is important knowledge that allows you to operate your flash drive with safety and better performance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derek_Rogers

How to Restrict USB Flash Drive to Virtual Machine

By Derek Rogers

Knowing how to restrict a USB flash drive to a virtual machine operation can be highly useful and help your applications to be more secure.

A virtual machine is essentially a software program that imitates a hardware program. According to the Computer Desktop Encyclopaedia, this is a "traditional virtualization technique that enables different operating systems to run in the same computer as well as to prevent applications from interfering with each other. Each virtual machine is like a 'machine within the machine and functions as if it owned the entire computer. The operating systems in each virtual machine communicate with the hardware via an abstraction layer called a 'virtual machine monitor' (VMM) or 'hypervisor'. The operating systems run without modification unless they use the para-virtualization method."

1. Virtual machines are very useful for these three applications:Eliminating the need for a whole new computer to run an application that requires a foreign OS.

2. Running development and production programs at the same time so that if the program under development crashes production is not interfered with.

3. Using multiple production virtual machines to protect against interference or corruption from the simultaneous running of allegedly safe and secure commercial applications without the need to run multiple servers.

Restricting a USB flash drive so that it is used as a virtual machine is an ideal way of using a flash memory drive. You would first want to partition your USB flash memory drive so that you can simultaneously run two different applications: one is a software writing application and the other is an already existing application. Once you have your USB flash memory drive partitioned, you can then apply it as a virtual machine for all three of a virtual machine's main functions. This is especially useful if you are a computer tech. If you are trying to troubleshoot a computer that would require you to access a foreign OS the flash drive can be made use of. If you need to make use of code, that writing program may crash frequently, but that won't affect your other running program. And, you can rest assured that your flash drive's data won't be corrupted by any corrupted data on the computer.

Another great point to keep in mind about using your flash memory drive in this way is that this creates a synchronous operating of multiple operating systems; this is not a mere multiboot or dual-boot system that you effect.

As databases grow and more applications with more diverse operating systems are developed, the use of virtual machines is likely to become ever more important and widespread, and the USB flash memory drive, with its data compression and portability, will likely grow ever more useful as a facilitator for the easy creation of a virtual machine environment. Knowing how to restrict a USB flash drive to a virtual machine operation enables you to access multiple "streams of consciousness" at once without fear of them causing each other to crash or be corrupted.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For logo branded USB Flash Drives, he recommends Flashbay.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derek_Rogers

The Advantages of USB Flash Drive

By Shawn Paul

A USB flash drive is a NAND type flash memory. The NAND type flash memory was designed for the exchange and saving of data as alternative to the magnetic disk. The NAND type flash memory has the capacity to hold large volumes of data. The writing and erasing speed is also fast. On the other hand the random access is rather slow because it uses block as a unit for the purpose of writing and reading.

The USB drive is made up of secure case small circuit board and is integrated with a universal serial bus connector. The secure case is typically made up of rubber or metal. This secure case protects the circuit board of the USB drive from damage and increases the robustness. The USB drives are very much smaller than the floppy disks and are rewritable.

The USB drive can be easily inserted into the USB port of the computer. With the help of USB flash drive, data can be safely and easily transferred. The USB drive is more reliable and safer than the floppy disks. The USB drives are small and compact, therefore the users can carry them easily in their pockets or they can attach it with their key chains as well.

The USB drives are more reliable when huge amounts of data has to be moved. Some of the USB drives allow 1 million erase or write cycles. The USB Memory card readers have a removable flash memory card. The USB flash drives provide more benefits to its users than the other storage devices. Almost all the computers and laptops have the USB ports, therefore the users can easily transfer the data. Most of the modern operating systems have the USB mass storage standard which is required by the USB flash drives to operate.

The USB 2.0 are much faster than the optical disk in terms of the data storage in much smaller space. The name "drive" is given to the USB flash drive because the USB flash appears to the OS of the computer like a mechanical drive and the method of access is also the same.

The USB connector must be protected and kept safe using a removable cap or by retracting the USB connector into the body of the USB flash drive.The USB flash drives use all the power supply from the host connection. Some high speed USB drives may require more power supply than provided by the bus powered USB hub. Therefore these drives will function when they are directly plugged into the self powered hub or the host controller.

The USB drives are most often composed of three components, the male connector type A, crystal oscillator and the USB mass storage controller. The function of the type A connector is to interface with the system of the host computer. While on the other hand the USB mass storage controller helps in balancing and storage of the data. The USB mass storage controller enhances and carries out smooth processing of the decoding, encryption and transfer of the data between the systems. The function of the crystal oscillator is to make sure that the out put of the flash drive is of the best quality.

The reason that the USB drives became more popular is that the floppy drives were most of the time failed to read the data from the floppy disk. Therefore, the users had problems while transferring the data using the floppy disks. The USB flash drives do not have movable parts like the floppy disks had.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Paul

USB Flash Drives - More Reliable Than Its Predecessors

By Sarah Reece

Over the years there have been several implementations in regard to storing electronic data. From floppy discs to DVDs, there are a plethora of options for you and your electronic storage needs. While both of these options are useful and reliable, a USB flash drive is compact, portable, and safer than its media storage predecessors.

USB flash drives are safer than traditional storage methods as they can seamlessly transfer and store files between the unit and your computer. There's no "burn time" or time needed for the files to be encoded onto the drive as opposed to storing media on a disk. No more worrying about whether or not someone is looking over your shoulder to see what you're storing; flash drives allow for quick storage in just a few seconds.

Flash drives are also safeguarded from hacking. If you feel at all weary of whose hands your USB flash drive could fall into, password protect your unit! Most USB flash drives come automatically encrypted for your file safety. You can also delete files as necessary from your drive whenever you deem it necessary.

They are also less susceptible to damage as opposed to a storage medium like a CD. Most drives come with caps to protect the drive itself from dirt or moisture. You can feel confident your media is protected while using the flash drive.

USB flash drives are small, lightweight and can hold a lot of data. They won't break after routine use, and can last a very long time. Media can be added and deleted with a click of a button, and they are compact enough to fit on a key ring. Is there any reason why USB flash drives are not useful?

Sarah Reece writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company. Ciniva specializes in web design and SEO. Sarah Reece is an SEO Specialist with Ciniva. Ciniva Systems is in charge of SEO for iFox Technologies

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Reece