I'm using Portable Apps and respectively my USB stick on a daily basis. Slowly but surely though I am concerned about my data protection. Even though my passwords are secured with KeePass I am a little bit worried about my private files.
Therefore I am looking for an USB stick that has hardware AES encryption available. As far as I have seen this is the only feasible way of protecting the data of the USB drive without having to much hassle and without slowing down the read/write capability. Since I am using Firefox on my USB drive I also need a very fast stick that isn't interfering with my web experience.
So I am looking for some experiences with this kind of USB drives and I am hoping for some recommendations. At the moment I am using a 4 GB OCZ ATV Turbo USB 2.0 with up to 35 MB/s reading and up to 30 MB/s writing speed. The USB drive I am looking for should have around the same transfer rates. Size should be at least 4GB. Price-wise there are no limitations.
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Since i'm using ThunderBird portable i was also looking for a good encryption.
First i tried software-encryption and also found a solution that didn't needet admin rights. (http://www.withopf.com/tools/securstick/ german language)
But all software solutions slowed down my pendrive a lot, so i decidet to search for an alternative.
After one month of comparing different solutions i decided to buy a 256bit-AES hardware encrypted USB pendrive from Patriot-Memory.
Its called "Bolt".
--> http://www.patriotmem.com/products/groupdetailp.jsp?prodgroupid=171&prod...
The Patriot Bolt is fast in reading: 30 MB/s (which matters most for portable apps, IMHO)
Writing speed is aceptable with 12 MB/s
It is verry cheap compared to other hardware-encrypted pendrives i looked at before.
The 16 GB version costs about 30 EUR in germany (thats about 40 US $ or 25 GB £).
No matter where you live, i suggest to use a price-comparisation-portal in the internet to find a good offer because prices will go upwards up to 200% of the cheapest offer.
Here are some reviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgV6ag12fjY
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/patriot_bolt_review/
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/04/18/review-patriot-bolt/
You said
Well okay, during my research (as mentioned above) i also found interesting items, that were just to expensive for my needs.
The "Kingston DataTraveler Vault - Privacy Edition" is even compatible to Apples Mac OSX. This is verry rare on the market! It reads with 24MB/s and writes with 10MB/s
For paranoid individuals, who think AES-256bit is not secure enough, there is the "Kingston DataTraveler 5000" but it is slow (11MB/s read, 5MB/s write).
If you want maximum performance and storgage space, including AES, search for "Digitrade HS128 High Security" (AES-128bit) or "Digitrade HS256 High Security" (AES-256bit) 2.5" Harddrives.
But they're extreme expensive!!! (starting at 400 EUR for 160 GB, AES-256bit)
They are avalible as SolidStateDisks or as traditional HardDrives.
The encryption is even protected against opening the case to plug the harddrive to your pc directly (using a special feature of S.M.A.R.T.).
To decrypt those things, you'll need an special ID card and type in a code number on the embedded touchscreen.
A bit cheaper are 2.5" harddrives that were protected with RFID keyring pendant instead of a keycard+pin. Its called "Digitrade RS128 RFID Security". Pricing starts at 99 EUR for 160 GB, but it uses "only" AES-128bit encryption.
If all of this is to much or to expensive for you, i really recomend to have a closer look at the "Patriot Bolt", that i've described in my last posting