Kernow
I have just bought the memory stick so dont want to buy another one. I just want to make it secure. I could put a password requirement on each document but that is too onerous. I would prefer to secure at a higher level.

-- Jeffmack,

What level of security are you looking for, and what type of files are they? If they're MS Office type files, you're wasting your time with passwords, apart from the most trivial intervention - there are freely available password crackers available that work very quickly.

At the stick level, have a look at http://www.keynesis.com/products/ or http://www.truecrypt.org/ to see if they meet your needs.

zzaxx99
Most if not all the files are .doc or .xls created with open office.

Folder or stick level security is what I am looking for. I had a drive once that had security features on it so I want something for free, like your 2nd option.

Thks

Carry it around in one of these, Jeffie.

LOL Smart arse

Jeffmack

The best way is to use a secure USB stick. San Disk and others do one with fingerprint recognition which is very secure.

ZZ

Could you expand on your comments re MS Officce security. I was under the impression that with Office 2003 + if you used a strong password and 128 bit encryption, then it is virtually un-crackable.

BTW . A strong password these days seems to be at least 16 random alpha numeric characters.

One way is to put passwords on any document files that you have such as Word, Excel etc. But bear in mind that these passwords will only deter the casual viewer as they can all be broken with the right software.

Optimist,

Dunno for sure about 2003, but Office XP crackers are freely available and instantly unprotect. There are also rainbow table attack methods available for Windows OS passwords, and if not available already, I would expect that Office passwords were vulnerable in the very near future.

There a goodish article on this in the current PC Pro or PCW

A quick bit off Googling leads me to think that Office 2003 files are already vulnerable.

I've done a bit of digging as regards MS Office encryption. This site appears to have a good summary.

Office 95, 97 and 2000 are not secure at all.

Office 2003 can be made to be secure but the default settings are not.

Office 2007 is secure as long as you save in .docx or .xlsx formats. I seem to remember reading that you have to turn encryption on as well as password protect.

Office 2007 currently uses 128 bit encryption though it can use 256 bit so anything that you save is as secure as your password.

As far as I know, the 128bit encryption can't be cracked but this might be possible in 10 years time. 256bit will not be cracked before they get quantum computers to work.

I think that Jeffie was more worried that Mrs Mack might see the contents of his porn stash than anything else.

:o)

Jeffie: Use Truecrypt. That's what I use for USB sticks. It's also good for securing all or part of your hard disk. Or porn stash. Thanks for the reminder, Hil.

Thks MM, I will give that one a try. As Hils says, cant have Mrs Mack being nosey.

Is anyone having trouble with Google?

Almost every search I make is telling me that "This site may harm your computer"

Any clues, folks?

EDIT. Mended after about 40 mins.

TP

Got it here as well TP, but only with Firefox, not with IE. Can't understand it.

edit - the strange thing is that it doesn't look quite like a Google site - either Google's been hijacked or my PC has.

SC.

Mended. See my edit.

TP

Assume you did nothing. edit - mended here also.

There is a bit of news about it if you look at the "Google news" tab.

Well at least SC and I survived the collapse of life as we know it.......

Scary times....

Back to the fireplace and my Agatha Christie from the lending library

TP

Scary indeed ....