Road warriors offered data protection

Security firm Steganos is targeting frequent travellers with an offering designed to help protect data from unauthorised access, loss or theft.

Steganos Secure Traveler includes the company's Secure VPN, Safe, Portable Safe, Shredder, Password Manager and AntiTheft products.

According to the company, 74 per cent of those who use a computer outside work also travel with it, dramatically increasing the risk of loss or theft.

Meanwhile, 64 per cent of people would be more worried about someone else having access to all their personal data than they would about the cost of the hardware if their computer was lost or stolen.

The offering is designed to ensure that data is encrypted wherever it is stored, even as it is sent over the internet.

Steganos Secure VPN uses 128bit SSL for secure surfing using hotspots and wireless Lans, while all data is passed through one of the many Steganos servers which means that the user can also surf anonymously.

Steganos Safe allows users to create as many encrypted drives as they need, each with a capacity of up to 256GB. The safes can be opened and used through Windows applications, but disappear from Windows Explorer when locked.

Secure drives can also be opened using a USB stick, storage card, ActiveSync-compatible telephone, digital camera or Apple iPod.

An anti-theft feature can also help to recover stolen computers. When the program is first activated, the computer receives an ID and regularly sends a signal to the Steganos AntiTheft server.

Should a laptop be lost or stolen, the owner can register the ID of the computer at the Steganos website and can see the IP address of where the computer was used in the past 30 days.