How to develop an encrypted USB Flash Drive

Question

I need to develop an encrypted USB Flash drive to protect my data. Here is the high level idea:

1. When USB will be plugged in PC, it will show one application, for example "openfile.exe"
2. When I run the "openfile.exe" it will open the USB (need to give password) for saving other files in it.
3. Now user can save file in the USB as usual which will be encrypted.
4. When I plug out the USB from the PC and plugin again, it will start from Step 1

So user always see the "openfile.exe" after plugin it until they run my application placed in USB. And data will be secured.

I have no idea, how about creating Virtual USB Simulator? Any one have idea how to proceed?

Thank you.

Answer 1

It's not virtual USB simulator, but a virtual file system (you create a virtual disk with a drive letter that is mapped to real location with help of drivers). Several of our products (namely CBFS Storage and CBFS Connect) can be used for this task.

The drawback of this approach is that you have to install the kernel-mode drivers to the system. Your application can do this on the fly, but it needs to have administrative privileges for this task. I.e. the scenario when you come to internet cafe, plug your USB stick and have an encrypted disk is almost never possible (cause admins of internet cafe won't give you admin rights).