Travel Technology - Good self contained encryption solution for memory stick?

Back on the subject of encryption, I'm now looking for a good encryption solution for my memory stick. The problem with this is that I don't want to use public key encryption - I just want a good basic secure way of encrypting files (incluing a private key used to decrypt stuff on my laptop) that doesnt require any additional external keys (from memory of data security classes at University, I think this would be called one way encryption). Is there anything decent either free or that I can pay for out there?

Back on the subject of encryption, I'm now looking for a good encryption solution for my memory stick. The problem with this is that I don't want to use public key encryption - I just want a good basic secure way of encrypting files (incluing a private key used to decrypt stuff on my laptop) that doesnt require any additional external keys (from memory of data security classes at University, I think this would be called one way encryption). Is there anything decent either free or that I can pay for out there?

Probbaly showing my ignorance here, but the solution may not be Memory Stick specific. It sounds like your looking for encryption/security for data that resides in a portable media element. Could the solution also work on CF's, SD's, USB mini-drives, etc?

Yeah, I'm starting to work this one out and it it generally does apply to anything that stores data. The problem with something like a memory stick is that for me the data on the stick always needs to be accessible. To do this with a public key scheme would mean:

i) The public and private keys are in the same place - not good
ii) Assuming I've used my private key to encrypt the data then the public key must be generally somehow available without being insecure.

This is why I want the kind of one way encryption that comes with say Winzip. The whole public/private key methodology is about the secure transmission of data between two parties wheras what I want is something is something to secure some data that I carry around with me and keep it as accessible as possible to me - with or without a network connection. Perhaps using Winzip is the answer but I don't know how secure that is.

Edited to add: incidentally some memory sticks come with built in protection which is quite nice if a little unknown.

As I posted on the other security thread I would check into Steganos for this.

Windows XP will let you encrypt documents and maybe folders using your login password.

NTFS is generally more secure than FAT, so it wouldn't hurt to convert.

As I posted on the other security thread I would check into Steganos for this.

Gadget Freak is correct. Security Suite 6 has "Portable Safe", which allows the encrypted memory stick to be read in any Windows machine if you know the password. This allows you to read the files without installing anything and it only $60 or so.

Now that might be just what I'm looking for.

I use "BestCrypt" by Jetico. You create an encrypted container and it mounts just like a hard drive. I also use within my normal hard drive for Outlook PST, Quicken data, expensable, etc. This way if my laptop ever gets stolen, all they have are the programs...not the data.

The encrytion is fantastic as well. I use the 256-blowfish algorithm although there are many more, and plug-ins being developed by others. Best of all, it's extremely simple to use.

Get it HERE (http://www.jetico.com/download.htm).

http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/
axcrypt does pretty much everything most of these programs do and its free and open source. Uses 128bit aes and functions well for my purposes anyway..