Vista - Encryption and passwords

I have password protected my thumb drive. I was advised to encrypt those
files for complete safety -- and I did.

However, to access the encrypted files, I need to enter a password. Now, I
have 2 passwords -- one for the thumb drive and one for the encrypted vault.

Can someone please explain why the encryption is "safer" when those files
can be accessed with a password and the thumb drive itself is password
protected, too?

Even lacking a password, it is possible, though only for someone who has the technical knowledge to access the raw data and defeat the password. If the data is encrypted, then the raw data will be more difficult to read - one would have to break the cryptogram to unencrypt the data. Basically, it's just really, really hard.

In protecting your data, one should first consider, what is my data worth? If your data has a value, then you should protect it. Chances are you have gone a bit overboard. Yet, USB drives are easily lost.

thank you for your reply and your promptness. Basically, you've confirmed
that someone can work around or bypass the passwords and still be thwarted by
the encrypted files. Aha!!

"solonfox" wrote: