IronKey 1GB secure USB Flash drive

Fitted for the first time, the IronKey appears as a read-only partition containing the access software, and as the data-store partition. Windows prompts you to install the IronKey software, then asks for a nickname for the Flash drive and the password you'll use to protect the data.

 
IronKey Control Panel: initialisation

There's a handy password quality meter, but since it goes from red to green after the entry of just four characters, it doesn't exactly encourage you to come up with something tricky to guess. Next, click the Initialize button and the drive generates its security keys, formats the data space and finally mounts for use.

IronKey's pitch is that its product isn't simply for data storage, and there's a special, secure copy of Firefox on board that can be launched from the IronKey Control Panel utility. Browse away, and all the permanent files your surfing session produces - cookies, bookmarks, preference files and so on - are retained only on the drive, in an encrypted form.

The IronKey version of Firefox sits happily alongside the one you've already installed on your PC - or Internet Explorer, for that matter - and the two will co-exist, though you can only run of them at any one time. The secure version includes an IronKey toolbar that in addition to linking to the IronKey website, provides a pop-up listing of bookmarks stored on the drive and a handy button that auto-fills web forms from data you enter the first time you use it.

IronKey Control Panel: in use

The IronKey form-filler also holds the details of a single credit card - again, all kept securely on the drive. A nice touch that will appeal to the truly paranoid: the credit card details don't include a card's three-digit security code. You'll still have to key that in to online forms yourself.