So can Biometric technology provide an even better solution? this 128mb version will set you back the princely sum of £59 which of course is steep for a USB memory stick of this capacity but when combined with the finger print software and reader its seems a fair price.

When you first insert the drive and load the software you are prompted for a password, this is used as an alternate method of accessing the drives features should the reader fail, be sure to pick a nice long tricky password. Having done this you are asked to register your fingers, this means you can let multiple users use the device.

On first use the drive is split into a public and private partition and without the correct finger print only the public partition is visible, once authenticated the size of each partition can be changed. Apart from basic encrypted file storage the Sony USB Fingerprint Micro Vault has 4 other features.

ID/password auto-login allows for you to use the key to store all those website logins,  file and directory encryption allows you to encrypt much larger files using the key, a screen-saver lock ability instead of a screensaver password, and access to Internet Explorer favourites stored on the flash drive. All of these features are windows only and Mac lovers beware this would just be an expensive memory stick for you guys.

The single DES 56 bit encryption used is pretty good, but the one flaw is it uses internet explorer 5.0 or higher to decrypt so this means an encrypted word file can only be view through IE which is a bit of a pain.

But we found the ability to lock our laptop from prying eyes was one of the best uses alongside safe storage of key files, the finger print reader worked well and only let LP access the drive / PC despite all of us trying to trick it by making photocopies and other James bond style stunts. LP stopped us short of cutting off his finger as seen in another James bond film but by this time we had assured ourselves that this was a sound piece of gadgetry.

The IE login tool might be a great help if you are someone who has multiple logins for websites with different login and password combinations, if you store them using the software on the key the next time you access the site you are prompted by popup for a fingerprint scan and then the login / password is automatically entered for you.

For £59 we think the Sony USB Fingerprint Micro Vault is a great gadget, it does work well apart from the file encryption through IE and would make a cool gift for someone who struggles with passwords or has files on their USB key that they worry about.

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