Once we are in possession of our freshly formatted media, it’s time to use an encryption tool to either encrypt the entire USB drive, or to create an encrypted volume on the drive.Įncryption tools are common in computing today, and serve many useful functions.

An unauthorized user on the other hand will understand the contents, but will not be able to access them as they will lack the required credentials. The benefit is that a user plugging the drive into their machine five years in the future, long after they have forgotten the purpose of the backup, will immediately understand the contents and how to use them. The unencrypted space can then be used to store instructions such as where to find the decryption password, and copies of the decryption tools for macOS and Windows. This ensures that the USB stick is detected normally by computers, and allows for storage of unencrypted files and folders alongside the encrypted files. You have two main options when preparing your media:Įncrypt the entirety of the media: nothing on the media will be visible without the correct credentialsĮncrypt only a portion of the media: the unencrypted portions of the media will be visible to those without the correct credentials, but the encrypted volume will be reserved for those with the passwordįor the purposes of storing your vault backup, a useful technique is to create an encrypted volume onto an unencrypted USB drive (instead of encrypting the whole drive). The safest way to store a backup is to have the sensitive file stored on some sort of encrypted media, such as a USB thumb drive.

Bitwarden vault location