I really like my USB sticks, but what I never did like is that there is no security when saving my data or making backups.
One solution to encrypt your data on an USB stick is to use the open-source program TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk. Any file that is stored on this virtual drive is automatically encrypted on-the-fly.
More information, download and an active community can be found at http://www.truecrypt.org
How does it work?
Portable Start Menu 3.0 Beta-1 can now automatically mount and dismount a TrueCrypt container on your USB-Stick or hard disk what makes it really easy to work with encrypted programs or documents. All drive letters to that container are adjusted automatically, that means that you can use absolute drive letters within the PSMenu user interface.
The USB stick must contain at least the following files:
Here is a typical directory listing of an 8GB USB stick with a TrueCrypt container (“backup.tc” in that example):
To use a TrueCrypt container in PSMenu, open the PSMenu program configuration, select the “TrueCrypt” tab and follow the “Setup Wizard”. This Wizard creates a unique file name in the root folder of your TrueCrypt Container. Please do NOT delete this unique file from your Container, otherwise PSMenu will not be able to mount/dismount the container automatically!
Portable Start Menu 3.0 Beta-1 can be downloaded from the Beta-Section.