Encrypted External Drive Uses Keypad

[exfileme]

Apricorn's external drive provides a keypad for extra security.

Encrypted External Drive Uses Keypad : Read more

 

[Guest]

Handy for businesses but I doubt it would be useful for the average consumer.

 

[grieve]

i like it... the keypad is cool.
I wonder how durable the keypad is and ultimatly if you break the keypad is there any possible way to get the Data? (defeating the purpose of the keypad)

 

[xaira]

nicely priced

 

[virtualban]

Indeed nicely priced. Average consumers too. My own personal data.

 

[Guest]

I'd just opt for a Truecrypt volume, steganography is much sneakier than a keypad, and there's plausible deniability if needed, whereas with the keypad, if somebody's holding a gun to your head, you're going to give them the PIN...

 

[huron]

Very interesting. Reasonable pricing as well. I like the multiple user accounts feature too.

 

[caskachan]

TILL THE 4 KEYS YOU USE WEA OUT AND PPL CAN GUESS THE CODE FROM THOSE 4 NUMBERS

 

[ceteras]

A fingerprint sensor would be nice.

 

[icepick314]

great for hiding your porn collection out in the open....

 

[theblackbird]

A lot of hardware security solutions have been proven to be ineffective. Lots of them have been hacked pretty easily. I'd put my trust in TrueCrypt and be done with it.

 

[jellico]

I concur with Blackbird. These types of devices always sound like they'd be really secure, but until they've been in the open for a while, their true level of security is a big unknown. Conversely, TrueCrypt has been around for sometime, and its source code is readily available for anyone to analyze. To date, no vulnerabilities have been found (though the efficacy of a hidden encrypted container within a container, the so-called "plausible deniability" factor, is still somewhat of an unknown).

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]ceteras[/nom]A fingerprint sensor would be nice.[/citation]

You might be surprised to learn that biometrics as a security safeguard, are not nearly as strong as most people think they are. The problem arises from the fact that a huge quantity of analog information must be sampled and reduced to a digital signature. Futhermore, because biometric source data (your fingerprint, your retina pattern, your iris pattern, etc.) tends to fluctuate slightly from one sampling to the next, the system has to make an allowance for a given reading being "close enough" to the stored signature. This forces a tradeoff where the signature doesn't have nearly enough sample points because the more sample points, the greater degree of allowable fluctuation the system has to accept.

In recent years, even the venerable fingerprint, long thought to be absolutely unique and infallable as a means of identification, has fallen into question as to its true accuracy and reliability for use in criminal investigations and subsequent convictions.

To be sure, biometrics can help increase security when used in tandem with other measures (such as a keycard and a passcode), but alone, they are far from being a security panacea.

 

[Guest]

I purchased two of these drives in mid-2010 as an extra layer of backup against regular hard drive failure. Information is backed-up to the drives, then the drives are stored in temperature controlled fire safes. I have to say that their interface, speed, reliability, etc has never been an issue ... except ... one of the drives just randomly died. Tech support has been helpful, but recovery of the information does not seem to be a viable option.

So, the moral of the story is: if you are going to use these drives as a backup for data which absolutely must be recovered upon drive failure (original pics, photos, other data), it may not be the best idea to use these drives - because if one fails, then you will never be able to get to it again (this is on design - and a good design for those would would rather have whatever data on these drives destroyed rather than fall into the wrong hands).

As I am not some super spy or anything, I have shifted my backup paradign to regular (cheaper) rugged hard drives .. which are again stored in fire safes. At least if those fail, I have means of recovering thd ata from the drives. Theses Apricorn drives will be relegated to storing data I do not really care if I lose (i.e. easily duplicated data) - making these now very very expensive and bulky flash drives.

Moral: unless you are a spy, government agent, pron purveyor, etc who needs a "Self destruct" feature on his data ... do not spend the extra money on these. Buy a cheaper, larger external drive and just keep it offsite in a safe deposit box.