SanDisk is to start selling in the US its first USB flash drive which offers automatic online backup for files as they are copied to the drive.

The flash drive, called Cruzer Titanium Plus, will be seen for the first time at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas.

The drive has a capacity of 4Gbytes. The user will also have access to backed-up files via the Internet, even without the drive.

According to Hezy Rotman, v-p and general manager of SanDisk’s USB Division: “We believe Cruzer Titanium Plus will encourage people to use flash drives for storing important data, not just transferring files from one computer to another.”

There is also optional security by turning on password protection, with AES hardware data encryption, for all files stored on the drive.

The online backup service is provided by BeInSync using Amazon Web Services.

“SanDisk is the largest supplier of flash storage devices worldwide, so its selection of BeInSync as its online backup provider greatly validates our approach, as well as extending our software and services to a vast new customer base," said Motti Vaknin, CEO of BeInSync.