Remember Schneier's five-step risk analysis process (presented in Beyond Fear , and also described here , for example)? Second step is "What are the risks to the assets?". To determine whether the device would fit your purposes it is essential to understand who are you protecting your data against. You cannot expect any device without high-grade encryption (proven algorithm, strong password etc. - most of us know encryption is hard to implement properly) to provide any protection against determined attacker. Even with encryption, there are myriad of ways to attack the system - from shoulder-surfing to keyboard sniffers and " thermorectal cryptanalysis " ( in Russian ). But what about ordinary, non-corporate user? I'm sure in most cases people would worry about accidental disclosure of their private information rather than a determined (neighbor?) that will be able to disassemble the device and access data directly.On the positive side authentication is performed in hardware and the device is platform independent and does not require installation of any software on the computer to use - meaning also no administrative rights are required for operation.
Conclusion
Affordable price, ease of use and platform independence makes the Corsair Flash Padlock nice option, as long as you understand the limitations. Basically, data is not encrypted on the flash memory and adequate protection is provided only against accidental loss and unskilled attacker. It is certainly a step in the right direction.
Additional Links
http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/padlock.aspx
http://www.corsair.com/_appnotes/AN701_Padlock_USB_Flash_Drive_08212007.pdf
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/08/padlocked_flash.html
http://www.clevx.com/datalock.html
