&gt; The stick being external doesn&#x27;t seem to provide much advantage otherwise, since if the laptop hardware is malicious it doesn&#x27;t help, and if it is not malicious then an internal trusted stick equivalent works just as well.<p>You can take out the external USB and keep it in your pocket when you go someplace you wouldn&#x27;t want to carry a laptop (eg. public bathroom).  Whether this is necessary depends on how paranoid you want to be.