Kingston's DataTraveler BlackBox USB drives meet federal security standards

Kingston's got a thing for über-secure flash drives, and its latest DataTraveler definitely keeps the trend alive. The waterproof BlackBox is the outfit's first Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)-validated drive, which means that it was given the seal of approval from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Communications Security Establishment of the Government of Canada. More specifically, you'll find "256-bit hardware-based AES encryption via a dedicated processor which automatically encrypts and decrypts data on the fly" and it'll also enter lock down mode if you happen to forget your password ten consecutive times. Of course, Kingston's pretty proud of this thing, so don't be shocked when you see the $165 (2GB), $242 (4GB) and $424 (8GB) price tags, alright? Alright.

[Via Electronista]

[mkeough23 @ Apr 16th 2008 6:42AM]

ooohhh water proof

[Rayan @ Apr 16th 2008 6:48AM]

Better than yelling ooooohhhh First.

$424 for 8 gigs, are you kidding ?

[Anthony @ Apr 16th 2008 6:52AM]

AES 256-bit encryption ... dam i might as well watch grass grow than spend my time cracking that T_T

unless of course its the top secret documents of aliens =]

[DCGaymer @ Apr 16th 2008 6:53AM]

I think I'll stick with my Ironkey

[Coolone3000 @ Apr 16th 2008 8:37AM]

Yeah i agree, i'll stick with my ironkey as well! Way cheaper, and has more features then just strong encryption!

[chris hogg @ Apr 16th 2008 7:14AM]

I think I'll stick to my standard USB key and TrueCrypt ;o)

[Poi @ Apr 16th 2008 11:06PM]

ha true that!

[JeffS @ Apr 16th 2008 7:22AM]

gosh~$424 (8GB)!!!
spend a lil more, & you could get an Eeepc

[batfastad @ Apr 16th 2008 8:47AM]

What's wrong with having a TrueCrypt volume on a USB drive instead?
Nothing!

[Wwhat @ Apr 16th 2008 2:07PM]

To read it you would need to install truecrypt, and I hope and trust the government (and financial institutions) don't allow you to just install any software you like on their computers.

[Neonic @ Apr 17th 2008 12:44AM]

Why don't you just have a regular partition with a hidden volume. Keep the TrueCrypt.exe in the regular one and then all of your data in the hidden volume?

[batfastad @ Apr 17th 2008 3:13AM]

Yeah exactly

Or @Wwhat... TrueCrypt is/can be a portable app. Just keep that on spare space on the USB drive!

Now I know where all my tax-payers money disappears to, buying stuff like this without any research!

[iipee @ May 20th 2008 2:53PM]

If somebody gets access to your hardware encrypted stick he simply can't read it.

With truecrypted stick they could do this kind of attack:

1) copy your encrypted store
2) replace truecrypt.exe with one that asks key and emails it to them
3) start using copied store

[Ian @ Jun 13th 2008 9:50PM]

@iipee
Just never allow TrueCrypt to access the internet.

[kal326 @ Apr 16th 2008 9:59AM]

Well it is certified for the goverment so I would say $424 is a steal in that regard. Though I really do wonder if the intergrated hardware encryption complete with decryption coprocessor is really worth the extra $400.

However, I'm pretty sure the $400 could have been better spent developing some system so that the fed employees don't lose the damn thing in the first place. If they can lose hundreds of laptops a year, how many of these can they lose?

[David @ Apr 16th 2008 10:22AM]

Doesn't Ironkey already do these things and more?

[Dan Davis @ Apr 16th 2008 10:30AM]

Canada, eh? Can you encrypt your MP3's of Bryan Adams and your JPEGS of Guy LaFleur?

I KEEED... I love Canada!

[mick @ May 24th 2008 12:58AM]

I'm just glad you didn't say Celine Dion ;-)

[NickEL @ Apr 16th 2008 10:30AM]

are people THAT concerned about data security to pay THAT much?

[dnld29 @ Apr 16th 2008 10:43AM]

Haha 256 bit encryption... holy crap just give me a couple 8 gigs for my school stuff and I will fine. I'm surprised that it got so much approval. I'm sure government can crack it if they will allow it, so we still have to be quiet about all the government secrets everyone has stored on their flash drives...darn.

[Ubuntu 7.10 WindowsXP @ Apr 16th 2008 1:30PM]

This is not for personal use. This will only be for commercial use. Big companies transporting important data. I can't see this being used by the general public. Seriously. My data just needs to be portable, not portable and locked up like Alkatraz.

[Wwhat @ Apr 16th 2008 2:13PM]

The price is a bit silly, you can get VIA CPU with hardware encryption circuitry for something like what? 25 bucks? so add that and a few extra components and you'd not need to charge $242 fur 2GB surely, and why does the price go up exponentially anyway, the basic encryption hardware is special but to add more cheap flash should not cost hundreds.
But I see the logic, get companies to write it off their tax, and get the government to use tax-money to make them rich, it's the smart thing to do, especially since the government is dumb and will pay quadruple guaranteed.

[Russ @ Apr 16th 2008 11:31PM]

Government approved because they have a backdoor?

[Cassini @ Apr 20th 2008 11:26PM]

I'd rather buy an Ironkey - which I have reasons to believe is far more secure than this Kingston.

[Rory W @ May 14th 2008 11:34AM]

Reason to belive?
IronKey is 128bit AES VS 256 AES

256-bit AES encryption is not twice as strong as AES - twice 128-bit encryption would be 129-bit encryption. In fact, 256-bit AES is the square of the strength of 128-bit.
That means AES 256-bit encryption is 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times as secure as 128-bit.
And that enormous difference is the reason why AES 256-bit meets the minimum standards for the most data

So, you still think they're the same?

[Sampath @ Jun 26th 2008 9:31AM]

this is a test comment

[FredericMartin @ Jul 21st 2008 2:55AM]

Just to be clear again about Truecrypt :
TrueCrypt can be "installed" on a USB drive but you
can not use it if Truecrypt is not already installed on a PC.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=administrator-privileges
So Truecrypt is not a fully portable solution.