Device Defender

Device Defender, an encryption tool for storage devices, can make sure that your USB memory keys, external hard disks and optical discs are protected against prying eyes.

When any of these external storage devices are connected, a dialogue box appears requesting a password (along with a hint question to answer if you’ve forgotten the password). If you wish to protect this device, simply fill in the appropriate fields and click OK.

Device Defender will then copy the necessary program data onto the disk and offer a choice of encrypting all existing files and new activity, encrypting just the files that are currently stored, or specifically encrypting new files only. The process takes around four minutes per gigabyte of data but considering most users would be looking to safeguard relatively small documents and other personal files, the wait shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

If you choose not to enter password details for a new device, it will be accessible as normal, while if you don’t enter a password for a device that’s already had the Device Defender treatment the only files accessible on it will be those that you haven’t chosen to encrypt.

When a protected device is plugged into a computer that doesn't have Device Defender installed, a password will still be required for access. Entering an incorrect password or cancelling the password request will then prevent files on the disk from being opened or changed, though the disk’s contents can still be viewed and data can be deleted.

In addition to removable storage such as USB keys, Device Defender can also protect CDs and DVDs. This is an option that must be enabled in the program’s preferences, and if selected, any optical discs that are created using the tools built in to Windows are subject to the same password-request process as described above.

Device Defender worked well in its ability to encrypt and restrict access, but this consumer edition does seem like a rather hurriedly stripped-down vers ion of its business edition. Changing settings and access levels was a little awkward and the options to do so aren’t presented clearly.

There’s no doubting Device Defender’s ability to protect data, but as a user-friendly program for home users it falls short.