IronKey: The World's Most Secure Flash Drive

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logic

logic

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I just saw these today and i will be buying myself one. They also work on apple mac's they just need to be popped into a pc once to be activated.



IronKey

Thumb drives are a convenient and cool way to carry around your data, and with drive sizes in the gigabytes, you can store a ton of photos, files, music, and video in a very tiny space. Unfortunately, due to their small sizes, they are targets for information thieves.

Think about it - all that personal data - your resume, email, password-files, and pictures of your girlfriend (wink) can be picked up and copied and returned before you even noticed it was missing. You want to have this data handy, but handy for you and not for that scumbag down the hall with the sticky fingers.

Like you, the US Military wanted portable but secure storage, and the guys at IronKey stepped up. They've developed the perfect solution that's one-part thumb-drive, and two parts Mission: Impossible. Their thumb drives hold up to 4 Gigabytes of data, but includes a hardware encryption chip that scrambles the data so as to be completely unreadable without a password.

Passwords can be hacked, but not the IronKey. It's built to withstand attacks both virtual and physical. 10 incorrect password attempts, and the encryption chip self-destructs, making the contents of the flash drive totally unreadable. The contents of the drive are filled with epoxy, so if a hacker tries to physically access the chips, he'd more likely damage them instead. Even if he did get access to the memory chips, they'd be worthless without the encryption chip. Electron-shielded, even a scanning electron microscope can't get inside.

Applications built right onto the IronKey help keep your personal data safe. For example, the password manager keeps your passwords safe. How? Your passwords are securely stored in a hidden hardware-encrypted area inside the device (and not in the drive's file system), being first locally encrypted with 256-bit AES, using randomly generated keys encrypted with a SHA-256 hash of your device password. All of this data is then doubly encrypted with 128-bit AES hardware encryption.

A secure copy of Firefox included with your IronKey encrypts your browsing session through a VPN tunnel to IronKey's Secure Sessions Service. It works by tunneling your entire web browsing communications through the Tor-based Secure Sessions proxy on your IronKey. The Secure Sessions tunnel connects over an encrypted connection to their network routing servers, which in turn route your traffic between a number of servers, and then eventually out to your destination website. This approach protects your identity and your confidentiality, encrypting and anonymizing your Web surfing on almost any network or VPN (virtual private network).

These drives have already seen duty in Afghanistan, keeping US Military secrets safe from unsavory people. They're certainly good enough even for your most sensitive data.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MMGDXu-oms[/youtube]
 
F

FastForward

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Encryption rocks But for USB drives you really don't have to buy a specialist flash drive to get rock solid encryption of your data. There's plenty of open/free linux apps for this, as well as plenty for Windows (screw you mac users! arf). I was using one called IronKey (don't know if related, probably) - which was free and gave decent encryption for free, with AES and Blowfish on the SilverKey version (paid, but not expensive).

I hope I'm not preaching to the choir, but security is a wholistic thing - not just about a single app. Just encrypting data doesn't necessarily ensure privacy and security....all the data transfer points and conduits need to be secured, as well as policies/procedures/behaviours. Keeping data encrypted on a USB drive is a great thing to do, especially if you lose your USB...but I'd question why you're carrying such sensitive info on a flash drive in the first place. I mean, what is so critical that it has to be on a flash drive??

It's a cool product but I guess my point is to ensure that security naive people don't think that just encrypting data on a flash drive is sufficient to provide the requisite privacy.....misconception of security is almost as dangerous as a lack of security, imho.
 
Blazed_Out

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This is very interesting... self destruct sequence!
Yeah, I'd like one but it is quite pricey plus I'm a person who likes big storage, so the 8gb would be my choice.

Thanks Logic man for informing us on this product!
 
Cali smoke

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wow this looks awesome logic, some real james bond type stuff
 
Kuntjoose

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wow now thats a fairly decent product. and with all the shit i been hearin about customs taking people's tech and snooping i think they need to start developing a laptop with some serious security. i no u can use a bootable linux based OS that runs in RAM with encyption and doesnt leave a trace, but i think it would be nice if they can physicaly imbed more security features right a laptop system. i know i would be cheking it out.
 
logic

logic

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wow now thats a fairly decent product. and with all the shit i been hearin about customs taking people's tech and snooping i think they need to start developing a laptop with some serious security. i no u can use a bootable linux based OS that runs in RAM with encyption and doesnt leave a trace, but i think it would be nice if they can physicaly imbed more security features right a laptop system. i know i would be cheking it out.

My mate ran linux and he had a flash stick and his laptop was unbootable untill you plugged in the flash drive...the encryption was AES 256bit pretty sweet
 
Kuntjoose

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ah cool man ive herd of somthin like that do u know wut apps he was runnin for that
 
logic

logic

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ah cool man ive herd of somthin like that do u know wut apps he was runnin for that

heres an example guide absolutely everything on the pc is encrypted, you boot using a kernel on a usb stick
 
P

ProGroWannabe

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Logic, since you and a few others here are so security-savvy, maybe you guys can answer this for me. I've always thought that the police would be able to get into any device whether encrypted or not. It's just with encryption, it will take longer.

Are you saying that this should provide adequate security for most hack attempts, or could it also thwart the police from being able to recover your data if they seize the device?
 
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DocOtis

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Hey Logic. Will these work on a Mac also? Where might we find these neat little devices? Thanks again Logic...DocO
 
logic

logic

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Hey Logic. Will these work on a Mac also? Where might we find these neat little devices? Thanks again Logic...DocO

I spoke to the company they work on mac but have to be activated on a windows pc first.
 
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xtheghostx

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I work in the IT field and do mostly security consulting. For security on a laptop I have backtrack 3 customized with most of my tools and some that came with it. It is the foremost linux distro for security people. http://www.remote-exploit.org/.

ANY encryption can be cracked even md5, but is it worth the time or the money to crack that encryption?

The ironkeys are great if you just want to store txt and data on them but for bootable programs and the like they are a secondary choice, the most secure thing is your brain. Store it there you will never lose it :D
 
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