Victorinox Secure Pro USB drive is 'un-hackable,' can file your nails

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]

[MrPointedHelix Posted Mar 28th 2010 7:41AM]

That's actually pretty damn cool for just $75. I think I might have found the geeky pocket knife I've been looking for.

[Liberty Posted Mar 28th 2010 7:56AM]

Handy for those stolen bank-records you are going to sell to other countries' tax authorities...

[cjwild Posted Mar 28th 2010 8:07AM]

"This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds..Goodbye"

[Almo Posted Mar 28th 2010 8:14AM]

@cjwild

Still here?

[soren121 Posted Mar 28th 2010 9:15AM]

Do want!

[Tldrvr Posted Mar 28th 2010 9:24AM]

Ah, so it's their answer to IronKey. Just has a knife, too.

[darjen Posted Mar 28th 2010 9:27AM]

1234.

[Xcelerate Posted Mar 28th 2010 9:35AM]

Hacked in 3.. 2.. 1..

[John H Posted Mar 28th 2010 9:37AM]

When will companies learn to stop making "unhackable" claims? It's just reckless and opens you up for embarrassment -- and potential lawsuits for false claims, I suppose.

[jsondag Posted Mar 28th 2010 10:47AM]

"They can make it un-hackable but that doesn't mean we ain't gonna hack it."

[spade Posted Mar 28th 2010 11:35AM]

I thought by 'un-hackable' they meant that the owner would stab you with the knife if you tried to hack it.

[wickersty Posted Mar 28th 2010 11:52AM]

does it multitask?

[txbrandon Posted Mar 28th 2010 11:55AM]

unhackable means hackable

[schmidtbaby Posted Mar 28th 2010 12:14PM]

I had (still have) a Victorinox knife with a USB drive - maybe 512 MB. The USB drive lasted mayve 2 months before it went bad. THey told me I had to ship it from the US to Switzerland (?) to have it repaired - no way , not worh it.

My theory on why it broke was the weight of the knife on the drive - though the drive could be removed.
If anyone knows of a cheaper way to have this repaired , let me know. I still have the knife - kind of a shame to just throw it away.

[morcheeba Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:21AM]

@schmidtbaby ultra small MicroSD reader + card + epoxy.
The combination is just about as small as you can get, so it should still fit in your knife (assuming a full-size USB connector).

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9433

[Ignition1 Posted Mar 28th 2010 12:22PM]

Gordon Brown can keep his secret budget deficit plans away from David.