CMS ABS-Secure is a plug-in USB hard drive that encrypts your data, writes Rupert White


Secure back-up that does not require a server, an IT person or a special account with BT, for example, is nowhere near as complicated as it might sound, but it is hardly on every 'normal' PC user's top-five list of things to buy.



This is a shame, because it should be, especially for those business users who keep commercial and personal information about clients or staff on PCs that could end up in the wrong hands.



Laptops regularly make the news when they get left in coffee shops after recently being used for marketing campaigns for high street banks. So there is every need for secure data storage devices, but we do not want them to be hard to use. Even CMS's ABS-Secure is a halfway house between dead simple and Microsoft-friendly, but it does the job of hiding sensitive information in a small format, large capacity USB drive, which is what we ask of it.



Though the ABS-Secure is sold as a back-up device, and comes equipped with CMS's BounceBack back-up software, this would be equally useful to lawyers who need to carry sensitive information to client meetings, for example, or home from the office, as the software that allows users to see and use the encrypted, hidden partitions on the drive is on the drive itself, and runs from there.



Plug it in, jump through a few software hoops, enter a passphrase and voilà, the secret drive is there. MI5-level security this is not, but the ABS-Secure boasts 256-bit AES-type encryption, which in theory will keep anything safe enough for commercial purposes.



The install and instructions are not the easiest, though one can see CMS has tried to simplify things, and the BounceBack software looks a little childish, but it all works well enough. Typically for Windows, everything is a little more complicated than it needs to be, and we had some worrying moments in mounting the correct drive, but with some thought the process is fairly easy. One is left with the nagging feeling that surely this could be much more idiot-proof, but perhaps this may be asking too much.



All in all, however, it did what it said on the tin, and for heavily securing your data in a light device that can be carried around easily, ABS-Secure seemed good value.



The ABS-Secure is available from www.allstuff.co.uk. Prices start at £135