IronKey Unveils Self-Destructing USB Flash Drive

fysdt writes to share that IronKey has released a USB flash drive with self-destruct capability. Specializing in "secure flash drives," IronKey has launched the S200 aimed at government and enterprise customers, "featuring hardened physical security, the latest Cryptochip technology, active anti-malware and enhanced management capabilities. It's the 'first and only USB storage device to achieve FIPS 140-2, Level 3 validation' and delivers advanced Cryptochip featuring AES-256, tamper-resistance and self-destruction circuitry."

Comments

Re:Nerdgasm

[afidel]

You're impressed that they coated the circuit board with black epoxy? The only impressive thing about that is they use so little power that heat transfer isn't an issue.

Encryption is just as good as self destruction

[basementman]

What's the point of having it self destruct? Encrypt any old flash drive with True Crypt and you have accomplished the same thing at a much lower price. Want to destroy the data? Hit yourself on the head with a crowbar, making you forget the password. Problem solved.

Re:Encryption is just as good as self destruction

[ocularDeathRay]

didn't you just read the slashdot front page news that they can hack your brain now? god... pay attention. This is an anti brain hacking device.

Re:Encryption is just as good as self destruction

[Cyberax]

Encryption can easily be beaten by thermorectal cryptoanalysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis).

Re:Encryption is just as good as self destruction

[Hurricane78]

So you think that will make the evil ones stop torturing the password out of you? They'll use that same crowbar to make you remember it! ^^

(Interlude: WTF. I have my adblocker disabled for the first time in months, and the first thing I see, is an Ironkey banner. Truly a slashvertisement.)

The point is, that the keyfile on your USB key is encrypted with your password. So if you destroy the keyfile, which would open your encrypted safe, your password gets useless. You could scream it to the whole world. It wouldn't matter. Nobody could open that thing now. Not even you.

And that is why you never let someone know that you want access to his system. ^^
Just use a keylogger, or a trojan horse, and be good. Become a cleaning person in that place. Or gain some trust otherwise.
If you need it: There are some internal CIA agent training manuals on the net, that can teach you this. Or if you can speak Russias, I recommend some Russian forums. ^^

Re:Encryption is just as good as self destruction

[mlts]

The advantage of having it drop access to the data after a certain amount of tries is the same reason people use cryptographic tokens -- brute forcing a passphrase becomes a non issue.

There is another feature of the IronKey that isn't mentioned -- encryption on a machine, say at a student computer lab, but without requiring administrative rights to access the data. A lot of schools disallow admin access, and this is required to mount virtual volumes (TrueCrypt, BestCrypt, PGP, etc.) Having software to allow access to the drive that never needs to leave user space is a good thing in these cases.

IronKey does have a market. Especially for students at larger universities where there are people who lurk in the 24 hour computer labs just looking for a USB flash drive to steal. With a stolen USB flash drive, they can either sell the done homework, or if someone has a paper for a popular class that isn't turned in, actually take the word processing document and call it theirs. The downside is that the distinctive metal case does lure thieves, but the user has to figure out a balance. To the user, is the data on the drive worth the price premium, especially if the data can be used by a thief or extortionist? This applies to faculty too. I'm sure there are those who would be more than happy to sell any test or quiz data that was gleaned from a USB flash drive swiped from a faculty lab.

Another use for these USB flash drives is delivering to a customer something extremely confidental (such as TrueCrypt keyfiles or one time pads) that will be used for future communication of large volumes of data. For example, the customer gets the passphase from a rep, while a secure courier drops off the IronKey. This way, the data never crosses the Internet.

Rip-off

[Anonymous Coward]

why would i pay $199 for that when i could buy a cheap USB drive and a hammer to break it with for less than $10?

Re:Rip-off

[caerwyn]

If you can break it with a hammer remotely, you should really be selling that capability- pretty sure someone would want to buy it.

Until then, the self destruct does work remotely.

Re:Rip-off

[Starteck81]

I believe the self-destruct is triggered by unauthorized attempts to access. While your way is cheaper I suspect that rubber banding your usb drive to a hammer with a note that says "In case of theft please smash drive" is somewhat less effective due the lack of ethics most thieves posses.

Re:Rip-off

[Chabo]

Here's my idea:

Sell a USB drive that's approximately 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet in size. The drive will consist of a radiation-shielded box. Inside, there's a flask filled with poison, and a hammer connected to a Geiger counter. There's also a cat with a heart monitor. If the flask breaks and the cat dies, then the drive will self-destruct.

Would you be willing to buy my product?

Re:Nerdgasm

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

You're impressed that they coated the circuit board with black epoxy? The only impressive thing about that is they use so little power that heat transfer isn't an issue.

Indeed. Get back to us when they have a Level 4 product - that's what all the big boys use.

Re:Nerdgasm

[TooMuchToDo]

Is that where my USB key is embedded in a stick of dynamite for quick data wiping?

Smoke

[wjousts]

This better emit a puff of smoke when it self-destructs or I'm not buying it. It doesn't matter if the smoke is only for show.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Where's the market?

[LWATCDR]

How would you transport a few gigabytes to a new location?
FTP?
External HD.
DVD?
And very large number of floppies?
I take my source code home with me on a USB drive. I currently encrypt it but I could see this being even better.

The Market

[NotQuiteReal]

Like most things, if you have to ask "who needs this?", the answer is not you.

Personally, there are a great number of wildly popular products for which I am not in the market.

Re:What a bad idea

[NecroPuppy]

Correct.

In many branches, they are currently banned, largely because of the viral vector issue.

Ironkey also supports Linux!

[AMuse]

I'm using an Ironkey at work (have been for about 2 years now) and the thing has been rock solid. However, the main reason I selected it is that it's the only key that I've had the opportunity to trial which is both FIPS 140-2l2 compliant *AND* supports Linux.

I use it with WinXP and MacOSX daily and yes, they do ship with "alpha" Linux drivers. Not full support like Win* but enough to read and write the encrypted data, which is all I really use.

Although the company claims that you can now "initialize" a key on MacOS, all the versions I've used required an initial bootstrapping under Windows before being cross-platform usable.

A hacker challenge

[RobertLTux]

what iron key should do is go to DEFCON with a bunch of these drives and then run a contest

If you can crack the drive you get some obscenely large amount of money
how to run the contest fairly

have the contents of the drive detail how to get to an offshore account with the prize money

So Ironkey how much you want to bet this key is "secure"

Strictly speaking, it doesn't self-destruct

[e9th]

From IronKey's blurb:

- Secure key management -encryption keys are born on the device in the Cryptochip and bound to the device
- Hard-wired encryption key self-destruct defenses and electromagnetic shielding of the Cryptochip

which I interpret as saying that only the key is wiped, while the actual data remains on the drive. If you've somehow managed to snarf the key before it was wiped, or if you're really cool and can break AES-256, you're good to go.