   "Many of us use a thumb drive to backup data while traveling and to pass data to trusted friends," Allen Laudenslager gets our attention. He elaborates, "Some of that data needs to be very private and should be encrypted. So, how do you encrypt your thumb drive?
   "Here is a link to the entire Wired magazine article,  but the specific directions for the Mac are below:
   "Mac OS X actually has a nice built-in encryption tool you can use right out of the box. To get started, just plug in your USB stick and open up Disk Utility (you'll find it in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder).
   "In Disk Utility head to File >> New >>Blank Disk Image. Select your USB stick as the destination and choose one of the encryption options. You can also set the size of the volume, number of partitions and the format.
   "Once that's done click create and enter a good password (see our guide to picking strong passwords). Alternatively, there is a Mac version of TrueCrypt which may be used.
   "May not be important for pictures of the gandkids, but if you need to take your tax information to the accountant you just might care!"