| USB Flash drives are handy things. They're easier to | | | | original packaging, is to see whether your USB stick |
| move around than a complete computer, which makes | | | | came with any security software. Some does, some |
| them great for transferring files between home and | | | | doesn't and it's the kind of thing that gets cut out when |
| office or for transporting all those holiday snaps to | | | | manufacturers want to keep their prices as keen as |
| your friends and relatives. But if you've got data on | | | | possible. But you might be in luck, in which case fire up |
| your drive that you'd like to keep private, how can you | | | | the software and see whether it has a user-friendly |
| password protect your USB flash drive? | | | | interface that you can use quickly and easily. |
| At least part of the answer depends on whether you | | | | The other main option is to get hold of some security |
| want to protect the complete flash drive or just bits of | | | | software that will lock your USB drive up so that it's |
| it. | | | | almost as safe as Fort Knox. |
| If all your systems use the latest version of Windows, | | | | Whichever method you choose, remember that you'll |
| there's a chance that you can right click on a folder on | | | | be asked to use the same password you set to lock |
| your drive, select properties and then choose the | | | | the drive up in order to be able to reopen it. It's too |
| Security tab. But this isn't recommended unless you | | | | embarrassing to think that you go to all the trouble of |
| have quite a bit of knowledge about Windows security | | | | locking up your drive from unwanted users only to |
| settings. | | | | have to try to hack back into it yourself! |
| Next up, if you've been careful enough to keep the | | | | |