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1) To answer you question: Trek makes one that doesn't require external drivers. But it's only up to 512k and USB 1.1, and I can't find any indication to see if it actually encrypts the info. (My bet: no)

2) What kind of "security analyst for a 10 billion dollar bank" are you, and can you be put in a room with the rest of us who are answering this question that we might have a chance to kill you, take your salary and put an untrained monkey in your job?

3) Or are you just being clever and trolling for answers to a stupid idea your VP had?

If it's the last one:

Why Biometric? Biometrics are awful security. Terrible terrible terrible. The only advantage they have is, when it actually works, it works and a person doesn't have to think about it. And that's one of it's problems: People should be thinking about security. After that, it's less reliable than passwords (which have a 100% pass/fail reliability) and the whole issue of not being able to change your biometrics. If someone figures out how to fake my thumb, my whole life is fucking over. I can't get new thumbs. (or a new face or whatever). And the other stuff that's been talked about ad nauseam.

Biometric thumb drives are even worse because it anyone who wants what's "protected" on it just has to steal the thing. Given physical access to the device, it's trivial to circumvent the biometrics.

What information at individual branches is important that needs to be backed up? And why the hell isn't it being done already, and off site? Seriously. You're a "10 billion dollar bank" You should have private data lines between your branches and central computers.

And lastly, under what circumstances would you want backups done by unskilled people? I mean C'mon. Are you telling me that you don't know that these guys are the weakest link in your security anyway?

A better security idea would be to automate your backups through your private lines and disable all access to removable media drives in your whole company. Why you'd allow someone to be able to connect a USB drive to a computer that has access to information that needs to be protected makes my nerve endings hurt.

Moreover, there are several models that sport fingerprint sensors for biometric security. Vendors include USBKey (BIO KEY), Trek (ThumbDrive TOUCH), and ClipDrive (BIO, BIO Plus).

Of course then the cover (the plastic part with the hole that you use to put it on a keyring, which probably costs about 40 cents wholesale) broke and now I can't even find the damn thing.

- adam

Sad story. I've been keeping my financial data in an excel spreadsheet on a floppy for over a year. Despite the horrendous history of floppies, I never lost data. About a month after I bought my "Q" drive I had it plugged into my Win98 box when the power went out. Once I regained power I tried to use the drive but the filesystem was fucked. Everytime I tried to access the drive I'd get something to the effect of "Can't access file system. Would you like to format"? I tried emailing Agatetech support to see if they had any recovery utilities. I never heard a response. In the end I formatted and called it a loss.

Agatetech has the coolest looking drive IMO but thier support sucks ass and I wouldn't put too much trust in thier reliability.

For those who are intersted, here are some manufacturers:
Agatetech :: Thumbdrive :: FlashDIO :: DiskOnKey

This sounds a lot like ThumbDrive. They have a fairly inexpensive product line.

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From the specification page at the above site:
(Secure version of product)
Password Protection Max 15 Characters
Operating Temperature 0C ~ +50C
Storage Temperature -20C ~ +80C
Relative Humidity under operating 20% ~ 80%
Relative Humidity under storage 5% ~ 95%
Insertion 5000 cycles
Data Reading Speed(ThumbDrive Secure to Host) 750Kbytes/Sec(Depending on PC system)
Data Writing Speed(Host to ThumbDrive Secure) 350Kbytes/Sec(Depending on PC system)
Safety Compliance FCC class B, CE

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From the specification page at the above site:
(Secure version of product)
Password Protection Max 15 Characters
Operating Temperature 0C ~ +50C
Storage Temperature -20C ~ +80C
Relative Humidity under operating 20% ~ 80%
Relative Humidity under storage 5% ~ 95%
Insertion 5000 cycles
Data Reading Speed(ThumbDrive Secure to Host) 750Kbytes/Sec(Depending on PC system)
Data Writing Speed(Host to ThumbDrive Secure) 350Kbytes/Sec(Depending on PC system)
Safety Compliance FCC class B, CE

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I saw something similar at Office Max last year, called a Thumbdrive - Their webpage says that it's Lose98-only, though they mentioned a Linux version a while back.

These things have been around for months now. Check the thumbdrive
Glen Murphy

we have had 512MB AND secure storage for a long time.

For the Thumb Drive, go here.
For a review of the Sony Memory Stick Reader, go here. Now, all you need to do, is to move the USB Ports to the front of the computers!

\\'ilson

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A student could wak up to a machine, pop his thumbdrive in the front usb port, copy his data to his thumbdrive, pop it out and be off home. At home, his computer most likely has USB. Just pop in the thumbdrive and repeat.

Only Windows drivers currently, but Mac and Linux are supposed to be soon to follow. Its just flash ram... how hard could it be?