Hi everyone,
I really appreciate these suggestions and the related discussion. My collaborators only specify the encryption method must be AES, as described above. Given the need to protect the laptop, USB, and portable HD I use, I think I'll try trucrypt. Hopefully it's not onerous on processor performance and memory. Should my needs change, I'll move to the 'fugly' ironkey. Compared with some of the very public data thefts, the data I care are relatively low-risk.