Before you scoff at the $130 price tag for a mere 4GB of portable storage, consider that, in a pinch, you could jam LaCie's silver-plated "Galet" into a werewolf, instantly killing the beast before it has a chance to chew on your face.

That isn't the intent, of course. Instead, LaCie and Christofle set out to create "an elegant object for your digital belongings." The two companies did that by creating a pebble-shaped USB key individually hand-crafted in France and "plated with precious silver through Christofle's 150 year-old silvering process." After that, each one is inspected to make sure it's both smooth and polished.

"The spirit and philosophies of Christofle and its luxury brand, combined with the technical expertise of LaCie, have come together to transform a universal technology into an object that is as beautiful and simple a treasured piece of jewelry," said Luc Pierart, Business Unit Manager, Consumer Peripherals, LaCie "Each time you open it, its mystery is revealed – an elegant USB key."

The Galet is available now and includes a gift box. It also includes LaCie's Private-Public software with password protection.

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Corsair on Monday announced it had discovered a security issue affecting its Flash Padlock 2 USB thumb drive that could expose your data. If you own one of these drives, Corsair says you can correct the issue by following these steps (be sure to back up your data first):

1. Drive must be in a LOCKED state. If the drive is plugged into a system, remove it.
2. Press and hold the KEY button and the 0/1 button down, simultaneously, for five or more seconds.
3. Release the KEY and 0/1 buttons. Note that at this stage your password MAY have been erased, but data will still exist on the drive.
4. Wait until any LEDs are no longer illuminated or blinking.
5. Press and hold the KEY button for three seconds. Both red and green LEDs will illuminate.
6. Enter a new PIN using the PIN keys. A user PIN may be 4 to 10 digits long; for security, Corsair recommends 6 digits or more.
7. Press and release the KEY button. Both red and green LEDs will blink in unison.
8. Re-enter your PIN to confirm.
9. Press and release the KEY button. Green LED will flash, indicating your PIN has been accepted.
10. Your drive is now secure.

Corsair didn't say exactly why all this is necessary or whether the issue affects only certain batches of Flash Padlock 2 drives, or all of them.

The U.S. Defense Department has decided to cautiously reinstate the use of USB thumb drives and other flash storage-based media. Flash storage -- and devices which use them, including memory sticks, digital cameras, media players, PDAs, and more -- were banned last November after thousands of military computers were infected by various malware, most of which was traced back to thumb drives.

That ban will soon be lifted, at least partially. Robert Carey, chief information officer of the U.S. Navy, said in a blog post that only "authorized individuals" are likely to be given permission to use thumb drives, and even then only for "mission-essential functions." And these won't be personal drives picked up off of Newegg or Best Buy.

"The days of using personally owned flash media or using flash media collected at conferences or trade shows are long gone," Carey said.

Instead, the drives will be "government-owned and procured," and will also contain built-in encryption chips that may require both a password and a fingerprint scan to decrypt the data, among other safeguards that are yet to be worked out.