Those who are privy to sensitive information are increasingly using flash drives as a mobile storage device. This can include lists of informants carried by the police, credit card numbers, government data – the list goes on.
While flash drives offer businessmen and government officials unparalleled mobility, it has also increased worries that this information could end up in the wrong hands. Worse, it could be used to develop a hit list of informants or others providing sensitive information to government investigators.
IronKey thinks they have a better idea. Founded in 2005, the company has led the way in secure managed portable storage and authentication, working with the military and government agencies to come up with what they claim is the most secure, most impregnable flash drive on the market today.
Adhering to stringent standards, the company’s products are FIPS 1402- Level 3 validated. This means they meet the government’s exacting Government Cryptographic Module Validation Program, one of the few drives to get this level of approval from federal agencies.
Designed specifically with the military in mind, each drive has a special encryption chip which scrambles all the information in it until the correct password is entered. If the wrong one is entered, the information self-destructs after the tenth try. Shades of Mission Impossible.
The drive is considered unhackable. That, combined with its self-destruct capabilities, and the chances of your information ending up in the wrong hands is virtually zero, or so the company claims.
Of course, most of us don’t carry around national secrets or even corporate ones. But some of the technologies in these flash drives may eventually find their way into drives for us mere mortals, albeit in a toned down mode.
Here are some of our favorites:
Always on encryption: The drive is continually scrambling the information. It can’t be turned off, except by entering the correct password. This makes it a very tough nut to crack if you’re trying to hack your way in.
Physically hardened: With a metal case, the IronKey is said to be indestructible. It’s even totally waterproof, exceeding the standards of the Marines. No word if it can survive a nuclear blast, but none of us probably have to worry about our data if that were to happen.
Auto-erase: This is our personal favorite. If you were to ever lose your flash drive and someone tried to enter a bunch of passwords, it would erase all the data. That could come in real handy for any of us who misplaced a flash drive that had data that was important to us. You can also terminate the drive remotely if you lose it.
Built-in malware protection: Increasingly malicious code and viruses are being spread by removable storage devices. IronKey’s flash drive has built-in protection to identify and stop harmful worms and other forms of malware from being passed on to PCs.
IronKey’s line of drives isn’t for everyone. Heck, there’s not even for the average guy. If you’re a spy, high-level government official or a CEO concerned that your financials and business plans could fall in the wrong hands, IronKey is an amazing product.
As for the rest of us, let’s hope some of these ideas trickle down to the Average Joe level.