I just bought a flash drive that requires a password to be able to access the files. How safe am I if I have files on it that are absolutely for my eyes only?

generally speaking encrypted files are fairly safe from casual prying eyes. If someone really wants to get into them....they can.

Hacks to break any kind of encryption has been around for years and years. Using one of these hacks ...it is just a matter of time to be able to see exactly what it is that you have hidden in there.....

My experience with lost or stolen drives is that in most cases the person that .....finds????....or the person that .....stole??? the drive really just wanted or needed the drive for their own personal use.

Unless the person knows you and knows what it is that you have encrypted on the drive and KNOWS how valuable the data is...then it really is too much trouble to spend on breaking the encryption these days....

Instead of just using encryption there are certain programs that actually hide the files and they can only be seen and opened on a computer that has the same program installed....stuck in any other computer the flash drive will show only unhidden files and folders.

If this is for illegal purposes though.....here is a warning for you....if you get caught they will not go after you solely on the charge of theft of proprietary material...which is really not anything.....they will see the program and determine that you had planned it and charge you with conspiracy to commit the crime which is worth about 25 years in most states. Theft of data in these days is no laughing matter and is really frowned upon by the authorities.

The current sentence for installing destructive programs carries about 15 years or more depending upon who it is you installed the program on. A friend of my sons just got nailed for implementing a worm on a professor's laptop to destroy grade data....he was given 20 years with a minimum of 10 years before even being eligible for parole ...all simply because he was trying to destroy a bad grade.