software protection with USB memory-stick???

[ergas]

Is it possible to use memory stick as an alternative for hard lock?

Recently in one discussion I heard an idea to use USB memory stick to protect software. The idea is pretty interesting since memory sticks are not expensive and are available in any shop.

Something like this: write some unique information to the memory stick, lock it and make it unpossible to copy it.
Is it possible or not, and if yes, how secure is it?

Maybe somebody already has some experience? I would like to hear more opinions.

[ReorX]

To get real protection, you'd need a processor on the memory stick.
Otherwise, you'll have the problem of getting the (secret) key out of the stick for processing on the host computer and in this very moment your concept is or will be broken.
Expensive protection systems pass data to the dongle for processing - that makes the difference compared to cheap solutions.

[rye04]

I am currently trying to figure out how to do this. I have one idea I wanted to run by you guys. Each USB drive should have a drive id that can be collected. This drive id should be unique. I know this is true with IDE and SCSI drives, and I am assuming the same is true for USB drives. If this is true you can have some type of registration process and you have to select which key you want to use plus have that key in the machine.

Thoughts?