JDPSoft Portable Vault, baby brother of the more expansive Digital Vault, secures data stored on portable devices, such as USB keys and removable drives.

Just as with Digital Vault, it works by setting up a secure area, or vault, where it stores all your sensitive data.

Vaults are created on portable drives by running the Portable Vault installation, while the storage device to be secured is attached to your PC. You then have to specify the drive letter of your portable drive.

To access the vault you connect the device, run the executable file stored on it, enter your password and then either add files for encryption or decrypt those already stored within.

256-bit Blowfish encryption is used and, with only about 2MB needed for the vault software, it won’t take up much room.

For extra security, all files stored within the vault are hidden from general view. You can, however, alter this setting for each file once you’ve entered your password to get inside the vault.

The package is extremely easy to use, but does take a little while longer than you’d expect to encrypt or decrypt files. The vault stores your data in a typical file and folder layout, making it easy to browse and locate specific data if you’ve encrypted multiple files.

Portable Vault is available for half the price of the Digital Vault alternative so is a good option for those who only want security on their portable drives.

It's an ideal solution for anyone wanting to safeguard their data while on the move. However, it doesn't have much to offer over this basic functionality.

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