How to find out if a file has been opened.

[flashandmisty]

Hi there everyone,

I accidentally left my USB stick behind in the lab at my university yesterday and when I came in today one of the technicians came up to me and handed it to me.
There are several files (open office documents to be specific) which contain some very sensitive personal data of mine. I want to find out if any of these files were opened.

I went into one folder where there were two of these sensitive documents, right clicked and hit properties and saw that the 'accessed' bit on the general tab showed that it was last accessed a few weeks ago, so all seemed well. I went into the other folder containing the other, final, two documents. I did the same on these, one showed 'accessed 9 february 2012' which is today, so I start to worry but the other said 'accessed 7th february 2012' and on this date the usb was on my person and I didn't access it so this is wrong.
Then i went back to the previous two and they now said they had been accessed today even though I hadn't opened them. I guessed this was because I had opened their containing folder. So in short I'm not convinced that the date accessed found in the properties option is really telling me when or if the files were opened.
So does anyone know of a way I can find out if these documents were actually viewed?
I am just an ordinary home user and I imagine I know far less than most on here so please try and put it simply.

Thank you so much

Max

p.s

sorry if I have posted in the wrong place!

 

[Dngrsone]

So, one of the files may have been looked at today; likely to ascertain who belonged to the drive. While there is a way to change the 'last accessed' date after-the-fact; most people (even IT-types) wouldn't even bother...

With that said, there is nothing that says that someone did not copy the entire contents of your drive to a computer for later perusal; so while the chances are nothing was seen, you have to assume that the entire contents of your USB stick have been compromised.

Now, what are you going to do to keep your private files private? I suggest doing something like this[/i].