When Written: Dec 2007
Continuing on the theme of security I came across a very neat way of carrying data around, something that anyone who has to transfer client’s data or who works in multiple locations would find useful. Laptops are fine but they are eminently nick-able as we hear on the news almost every day as another one from a bank etc goes missing. USB pen drives are ideal, being lightweight and can be protected by passwords, ( the fingerprint ones also use a password and so are similar ) . However with the use of the GPU in the modern graphic cards the brute force techniques of hacking passwords has recently achieved a significant increase in speed ( http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12825&feedId=online-news_rss20).
So it was great interest I found a rugged and military grade secure usb pen drive. This product called IronKey (http://www.secure-usb.co.uk ) stores all its data encrypted and has all its electronics encapsulated in epoxy inside a metal case. But best of all, after ten concurrent incorrect password attempts, it self destructs. I haven’t tested this as I had to pay for my one but I am assured that it does not explode ‘Mission Impossible’ style, such a shame. Oh and it has a secure version of Firefox with a proxy server installed on the drive which you can use for anonymous browsing. With one of these devices, should it get lost you can be fairly certain that your and your client’s data will be safe. Now to send one to the Home Office !
It’s metal, it’s sexy , it’s secure and it self destructs!
Article by: Mark Newton
Published in: Mark Newton