I carry a thumbdrive around with me in my backpack contains my personal documents, budgets, etc; I recently lost an older thumbdrive off my key chain that had the same type of data, just outdated. I realize that it could happen again but would like to put some sort of security on the thumbdrive if possible so if it were to get into the wrong hands, I'd be somewhat protected (it may annoy them enough to not try to view the docs). Does anyone have a freeware solution in mind? Thanks in advance!
Just got through trying TrueCrypt. The thing that I don't like is... I want to be able to use the thumbdrive whereever I go... But this method seems to rely on the host computer having TrueCrypt installed on the computer. I need something else if that's the case.
What about putting your documents inside a zipfile and password protecting it until you come up with another solution?
Could do the same with 7-Zip via 7-Zip Portable, just place 7-Zip Portable on your USB Thumbdrive(s) and you're good to go albeit you'd have to extract the stuff to use it. And don't forget something like Keepass Portable, so you don't forget all your passwords.
My first Kingston 256Kb flash drive came with a CD that you could password protect your data on the drive. I've never need to use it so I can't tell you if its any good.
Actually guys, with a bit of additional digging, I found out TrueCrypt can be run from the USB drive itself so this will end up working out after all. My next step was to create a password protected zip file like some of you mentioned Thanks and I'll let you guys know how this turns out!