Victorinox Secure Pro USB drive is 'un-hackable,' can file your nails
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 28th 2010 3:07AM
posted March 28th 2010 3:07AM
This isn't the first USB drive / Swiss army knife we've seen from Victorinox, but the company's new Secure Pro drive is the first that is supposedly "un-hackable." To put that claim to the test, Victorinox actually offered a £100,000 prize to a team of "professional hackers" if they could crack the drive during the company's launch event -- they were unable to do so. That un-hackableness apparently comes primarily from the drive's combination of AES256 technology and fingerprint security, which is paired with (get this) a self-destruct mechanism that irrevocably burns the CPU and memory chip if there's any attempt to force the drive open. All that and a pair of scissors -- how can you go wrong? No word on a release over here just yet, but the drive is now available in the UK in capacities from 8GB to 32GB for between £50 and £180 (or about $75 to $270).
[Thanks, Nikolas R]
[Thanks, Nikolas R]
That sounds awesome, just wish I had any such vital data to go on it...
Hmmm, states it has an "LED Mini White Light" but a class II laser device warning sticker on it? LEDs gone bad?
@Almo
It will make ur USB port loose
@Almo
It is also a light saber so that you can personally defend your data by hacking potential hackers to death with the built-in laser device. This adds to the AES256 technology and fingerprint security as well as preventing others from using your light saber via fingerprint indentification.
All in all a neat device.
@Almo Technically, LEDs can emit enough light to be classified as class 2 lasers. Even for a laser, class 2 is really weak.
All the fun ones are Class 3B and up >:D
@Nicko01
"all the fun ones" lmao
@Nicko01 Sorry Nick, but that's not the case.
The FDA does not regulate LEDs - see Q31:
http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/ElectronicProductRadiationControlProgram/GettingaProducttoMarket/default.htm
The definition of a Class II laser:
(7)Class II laser product means any _laser_ product that permits human access during operation to levels of visible laser radiation in [in the range] of the accessible emission limits contained in table II-A...
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=1040.10
An LED might have the same energy at a certain distance as a laser, but it neither regulated nor classified as one. The same could be said for halogen bulbs or arc lamps... although sun lamps and high-intensity mercury vapor discharge lamps are both regulated (but as their own things, not as lasers)
@Almo
don't know about vital but porn's still pretty important no? :P
Finally nobody can find my hidden porn, not even my hacker-gf!!!
Cool. I'll have to pick up a couple in the next TSA confiscated item auction...
@TIMMAH
Exactly what I was thinking!
ZOMG
@Vendettx
"TWSS"
you can a Corsair Flash Voyager 64gb for the price of this 32. But the added security and the fact I can stab someone with my usb drive.. makes it tempting =)
@dalumberjack
also adds who new meaning to possible nerd rage....
Man I wish I could have one but we're not allowed to have knives in my dorm, not even cooking knives.
@Broderbund
Your dorm sounds like a kindergarten class...
@Rocket Raccoon I go to virgina tech
@Broderbund this is one of those moments...
@spacegravity4me
Cue awkward silence.
Don't worry guys, he said Virgina Tech. Not Virginia Tech. We're good.
@Broderbund
Vagina Tech? Nice!
...
Too soon?
@Broderbund
"...not even cooking knives". I'd say cooking knives are bigger and more dangerous than most pocket or even belt knives. I'd be surprised if they gave you a hard time with a small Victorinox.
Second, what the hell, the dude used guns, not a fucking knife. A knife isn't an easy kill weapon. A golf club, bat, pair of scissors (irony), glass bottle, etc. will all easily do the same amount of damage or more with the same amount of ease or more. Not that I'm saying you make the rules, but I just find this sort of stuff ridiculous. They'd have to ban just about every household item. Banning knives just draws attention to them.
How the hell do you eat, cook, shave, cut anything?
@jedidove
I was wondering why all the hipster douche bags in college towns have beards . . .
@Broderbund
So this is a Maximum Security Penitentiary that you study at?
@Broderbund Yeah because we all follow the rules about whats allowed in dorm rooms. If people can sneak liquor and drugs into their dorms I serious doubt anybody is gonna bust your onions over a pocket knife.
Knife=Check
Laser=Check
Shark=Missing
@MikeZ
I think it was cut up by the laser and the knife
where do I contact these "professional" hackers? some LN2 and someone good at surface mount desoldering could probably circumvent the self destruct, just use the flash chip in an older model flash drive with the same controller. At worst you would have to manually reverse-engineer the drive controller IC manually after "de caping" it (etching away the plastic) and examining it under a high powered microscope, then program a microcontroller (or FPGA) to bypass the fingerprint reader. I don't have all the required skills to do this, but I'd bet it's not impossible. This is assuming you don't just make a ballistics gel copy of the person's fingerprint using the owner's coffee cup, some aerosolized cyanoacrylate and I think a copper clad PCB (see mythbusters for that one).
@abzman2000
but can you do it BEFORE the drive self destruct?
@abzman2000
or you could just use the secure usb swiss knife to cut off the owner's finger and take it along with you.
@InTheRye not so fast... from the release " It uses several layers of security including fingerprint identification and a thermal sensor - so that the finger alone, detached from the body, will still not give access to the memory stick’s contents."
@dboz07 so boil, or microwave, or breathe on it, it can't be that hard to simulate the temperature of a finger, you could even make a very thin fingerprint and wear it on a rubber glove
@Raio that's what the LN2 is for, you counteract the drive trying to burn itself by cooling it WAY down, unless it's something like there is a vacuum in the drive and a sensor that detects atmosphere, then just dissect it in a vacuum chamber, if it's a certain gas then it's even easier.
@abzman2000
The "unhackable" claim has the caveat that the hackers only had 2 hours to crack it. Your methods would take far longer and require mangling the drive in just such a way as to prevent the chip from fusing. As for faking the fingerprint, you might MIGHT be able to get away with that if the gel prints are attached to your own finger, but the added air sensors will probably detect that the silicon does not breathe like your skin does through the pores.
@Dante of the Inferno ok, yeah I'll admit it's not doable in 2 hours, but it is quite doable, and for someone skilled at soldering substituting the flash chip in to one of their older model flash drives might be possible in 2 hours assuming you could figure out how to stop it self destructing (I still assert LN2 would do it). assuming you could get the fingerprint I bet it wouldn't mind some warm ballistics gel rather than a finger
@abzman2000
I'd be worried the LN2 would permanently damage the flash chips though, it'd be tricky to manage that just right.
I dunno, get back to me in a few years when I've finished my degree in hacking :P
@Dante of the Inferno Most people have fat fingers. Mine are thin. A good skin job and I think I'm fine.
Perfect for pedophiles....
...and watch your knife and data disappear when security confiscate it at the airport...
@kadonaz
thats the thought I had - I certianly do not want to put my data in my checked baggage
@kadonaz Press release says the drive is removable.
Best Headline Ever.
More than likely, the hackers were given a small time frame in which they could hack the device. They were probably given the hardware to do it, which wouldn't have been much.
Given enought time, pretty much any hacker could defeat the encryption on that usb drive.
Looks like it'll defeat itself by breaking at the plug from all the weight.
Don't drop it to much or it will self destruct...
finally, i have a place to store all my naked pics
yay!
Must be the only USB drive you can't take on an airplane (i.e. in your cabin bag).
@Dschoul The flash drive is removable.
Its already in UK??! anyone knows where I can get it?
Actually it's a shame it's only an LED white light and not a laser pointer (as "advertised" by the class II warning)... otherwise I would have been tempted to purchase, as I'm in the market for a new USB flash drive & a pointer, ho hum....
Hmmmm... as others have pointed out, looks like the weight might damage your USB port?