Top 10 Encrypted USB Flash Drives

We entrust USB sticks with a lot of our personal and important data, so buying the best encrypted USB stick for your budget is essential.

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To get a highly capable encrypted USB stick, you need to evaluate some characteristics to be absolutely confident while taking a buying decision.

Which is the best encrypted usb stick?

Drive Capacity

If a user has a lot of data that needs to be stored securely, then an encrypted hard drive is the way to go. Some models on the market offer a few terabytes of space to accommodate users in need of larger capacities.

USB flash drives are not as expensive and are more portable but come with less space for storing sensitive information.

Data Transfer Rate

This figure is relevant if a user need to transfer considerable volumes of data and don’t want to waste too much time.

To ensure that a user get a solid data transfer rate, look for USB 3.0 flash drives and 7200 RPM or more and a large cache size if he want to get an encrypted hard drive.

Protection & Encryption

Different encrypted drives offer different levels of protection. It also depends on personal preference if a user would rather get prompted to enter a password or just scan a fingerprint when he accesses the stored information.

The AES data encryption algorithm is also worth mentioning because it comes with different standards, ECB (Electronic Code Book), CBC (Cipher Block Chaining), and XTS. ECB is the most basic; CBC is more advanced while XTS is one of the best algorithms in terms of security.

Here is our top ten of encrypted USB sticks that are most recommended for their outstanding qualities and the excellent value for their cost.

Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 

If a user want one of the fastest possible USB memory sticks, then the Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 is definitely the one for them, but the price is high. If a user need to move around large files quickly, then this is definitely worth the price.

It also comes with 128GB of storage space, which is a phenomenal amount of storage to carry around in a user’s pocket.

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Kingston Technology Data Traveler 100 Generation 3

Over the past two years or so, the rise in wholesale transportation costs has made it uneconomical for retailers to sell USB flash drives that were too small. With the cost of postage and packaging actually constituting the biggest portion of the selling price.

The DT100 G3 is the most affordable 64GB USB 3.0 drive on the market with read or writing speeds of 150Mbps and 70Mbps respectively. Also consider the Kingston Technology Data Traveler G4 which allows a user to transfer his files between OTG-enabled Android smart phones and tablets.

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SanDisk Extreme CZ80

The SanDisk Extreme CZ80 is a brilliantly priced USB drive that offers plenty of storage space and file transfer speeds. Although it’s priced more towards the budget end of USB sticks, the performance is anything but by budget this is a very speedy little performer.

The slide-out design of this stick means a user can tuck the USB interface into the body when not in use, minimizing the risk of it getting damaged while he is carrying it around.

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Verbatim Pinstripe

This is the cheapest USB 3.0 drive on the market on a per-GB basis at 13p and the sweet spot in the market. It comes with a two-year warranty and a cap less or retractable cap design.

Worth nothing that Verbatim, a very well known Japanese storage and memory manufacturer sells it in a cheap price and while there’s no advertised read write speeds, it is likely to be fast.

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PNY Turbo 256GB

Another memory vendor that turned into a player in the USB market as well. It features a capped design as well as read or writing speeds of 80Mbps and 20Mbps respectively.

These are not super fast speeds and if a user wants something with more lively then check out some of the other USB drives in the product reviews.

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Patriot Supersonic Mega

A USB 3.1 drive which is compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0, it is from one of the most established memory players on the market but a relative newcomer to this segment.

It has a zinc alloy body with aluminum accent and reaches read or writing speeds of 380Mbps and 70Mbps respectively. No cover and this is one that comes with a five-year warranty.

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SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43

If a user doesn’t want a USB stick jutting out of a laptop or tablet while he is using it, then a low profile USB stick is a good choice, and the SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 is an excellent choice.

It’s small and light enough to easy carry around, and when it’s plugged into a laptop it doesn’t stick out much from the body. It’s not quite as fast as many of the other USB memory sticks we mention here, but if a user wants a small form factor USB stick, it’s worth the trade-off.

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Samsung T3 SSD

It offer a high read speeds of up to 450Mbps thanks to Samsung’s own 3D V-NAND technology, it also comes with a three-year warranty and has a USB Type C connector. Note that it is much bigger than a traditional flash drive and costs about five times a spinning hard drive of a similar capacity.

It comes with V-NAND based like the Samsung Portable T1 and it does boast speeds of 530Mbps and 520Mbps in read/write mode respectively. A user will need to get a separate enclosure to get it to work with a standard USB port.

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Kanguru Defender Elite

The overall functionality has been designed to make sure that the user gets the state of the art and very well settled program that will also encrypt the data besides saving it.

Everyone knows that it is impossible to make sure that an AES encryption is broken.

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Iron Key personal D200

The overall functionality has been designed to make sure that the user gets the state of the art and very well settled program that will also encrypt the data besides saving it. Everyone knows that it is impossible to make sure that an AES encryption is broken.

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