Kingston’s new USB drive features a frankly unreal amount of military-grade security
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Kingston Digital has unveiled the Kingston IronKey Keypad 200 (KP200), which the company claims is the industry’s first drive to provide a new level of military-grade security for consumer data.
The KP200 features FIPS 140-3 Level 3 security – approved by the US Secretary of Commerce in March 2019, FIPS 140-3 Level 3 is currently the highest security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules, replacing FIPS 140- 2.
Measures that increase USB security could be much needed by consumers and businesses everywhere, as they remain a common endpoint used by cybercriminals to infiltrate organizations; Red Canary cybersecurity researchers recently discovered a new worm-like malware that spreads offline via infected USBs.
What does it offer?
The new drive offers XTS-AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption as part of a feature-rich and OS-independent alphanumeric keyboard.
The KP200 also includes a built-in rechargeable battery, allowing users to unlock the drive using the keypad for PIN access, without using the associated software.
Once unlocked, users can access their data by connecting the drive to any device that supports USB Type-A Flash storage, making it a plug-and-play device in various IT ecosystems.
In addition, the drive’s circuitry is coated with tamper-resistant, strong epoxy to prevent access to internal components without damaging them.
The KP200’s keyboard is also coated with a protective polymer layer to prevent the analysis of fingerprints on the keys.
In addition, the KP200 supports a multiple PIN option, allowing the use of individual administrator or user PINs. KP200 will lock the user PIN after ten failed login attempts, but if both PINs are enabled, the administrator can be used to recover a user PIN and access the drive.
According to Kingston, if the admin PIN itself is entered incorrectly ten times in a row, the built-in brute force attack protection will erase the drive crypto, destroy the data permanently and reset the device.
In addition, the KP200 can apparently protect against malware from untrusted systems with two different read-only modes, allowing administrators to protect the drive during a specific session or globally between user sessions.
- Are there any offers from Kingston Digital on our list of the best USB drives?