Laptops, external drives, and USB sticks are especially vulnerable to data theft, but with Windows and a few tools, you can ...

Fortunately, password-protecting a USB drive isn't complicated and can be done using built-in tools available on your PC or Mac, as well as dedicated third-party encryption apps.

Want to prevent unauthorized access to your flash drives? Here's how to encrypt a USB drive on Windows 10 and safeguard its data from unsolicited access.

Next, assuming the USB has a physical-based password keypad, key in the password to access the files on the drive, and voila — protected files are now accessible.