IronKey 8GB Secure USB Drive

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May 5, 2008 Flash drives are becoming almost ubiquitous these days, and with Flash memory continuing to follow its own version of Moore’s Law, capacities that were groundbreaking a year or two ago are now low-cost promotional items and the overall effect is that all flash drives become disposable within a short time. This is sad, because once the public’s mind has perceived an item as being of no enduring value, that becomes the truth. It’s particularly sad when an item such as the IronKey comes along, because it has all the virtues of a state-of-the-art Flash drive and delivers great bang-per-buck for its unique functionality.

The latest IronKey has an 8GB-capacity and what sets it apart is its ruggedized, waterproof and tamper-resistant form factor that includes hardware encryption, strong authentication, portable applications and ultra-fast memory – all for US$300.

All user data on an IronKey is encrypted with high-speed military-grade hardware encryption. Unlike software-based encryption, this always-on protection cannot be disabled, and is protected against cold-boot and brute force attacks. If a thief tries to break into an IronKey and exceeds a policy-determined number of failed login attempts, the IronKey Cryptochip will lock out the encryption functions and securely erase all the encrypted data with its patent-pending Flash Trash technology.

"Our virtual desktop customers have been eagerly awaiting IronKey 8GB drives because they are deploying large Windows desktops which rapidly wear out ordinary flash drives and most importantly need to be secured," said John Jefferies, vice president of product marketing at IronKey. "Running virtual desktops from flash drives demands high performance with superior reliability which is why customers are choosing to deliver mobile desktops and business continuity solutions on IronKey."

IronKey devices offer a suite of applications and services, including portable Firefox, IronKey Password Manager, RSA SecurID and a Secure Sessions service. Policy settings allow IronKey administrators to turn these applications off or on as desired.