Corsair Flash Padlock USB Flash Drives – Painless Data Security

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Corsair Flash Padlock USB Flash Drives – Painless Data Security

Posted by John Andrews on October 8, 2007 12:02 AM

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USB flash drives are becoming commonplace. They are small, inexpensive, easy to use, and provide a great way to transfer data between computers at work, home, or when visiting friends or family. With a capacity of 1 GB, 2 GB or more, flash drives can hold a large number of photos, music files, videos, business documents and personal documents. Unfortunately, along with this convenience comes the risk that if your USB flash drive is lost, all of those personal and business files can be viewed by the person that finds it. If you ever store personal information on your flash drive then you should take a look at Corsair’s new “Flash Padlock” flash drives which provide a painless way to ensure that your data will always be secure.

Data Security for Flash Drives

Your company may require that all business files be stored on a password protected device (such as your laptop). But even if they don’t, it is always a good idea to keep your information secure from prying eyes because you never know when you might lose your flash drive due to accident or theft.

Most flash drives I’ve seen put the burden for security on the user. At best they may provide a software program that lets you encrypt your files when they are copied to the flash drive. But nearly all of these software-based solutions suffer from several shortcomings:

Incompatible: The software used for encryption only runs on a single operating system (usually Windows), so if you need to move files between different operating systems they aren’t very useful.
Inconvenient: You can’t use the files while they are encrypted on the flash drive. If you want to edit a file you must copy the file to your computer (after entering a password), make the changes and then copy the file back to the flash drive (possibly entering the password a second time).
Inefficient: Many of these encryption programs take up space on your flash drive and create lots of hidden files and directories.

With the release of their new “Flash Padlock” USB flash drives, Corsair has a better solution. Rather than using a software-based solution to encrypt the files, the Flash Padlock has a built-in keypad to unlock the flash drive. There are several benefits of this hardware-based approach to securing your data:

To unlock your data, just enter your PIN (1 to 10 digits) on the Flash Padlock’s keypad and then plug it into the USB port on your computer. Everything stored on the Flash Padlock is now easily accessible from your computer.
To lock the Flash Padlock and your data, just unplug it from the USB port. That’s it!
This hardware based solution works with ANY operating system.

I’ve found that it just takes an extra second or two to unlock the Flash Padlock before plugging it in to my computer. Other than that, I don’t have to do anything else to secure the data stored on the Flash Padlock. In order for security features to be effective, they should be as non-intrusive as possible and the security features in the Flash Padlock are about as non-intrusive as you can get.

Technical Details

1) There are five buttons for entering your PIN. While each button has 2 numbers on it (0-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, and 8-9) there are really only 5 buttons and the extra numbers on each button are only there to make it easier to remember your PIN. This means that, with up to 10 numbers in the PIN there are up to 9,765,625 possible PIN combinations.
2) There is a “Locked” indicator in the upper left of the keypad that flashes red to indicate the device is currently locked.
3) There is a “Key” button to you press when you want to enter your PIN to unlock the Flash Padlock. Once you press this button the “Locked” indictor starts flashing red and you have 5 seconds to start entering your PIN. After entering your PIN you press this button a second time to complete your entry and unlock the Flash Padlock.
4) There is an “Unlocked” indicator that turns green to provide a clear visual indicator when the Flash Padlock is unlocked.
5) The little “Corsair” logo below the “8-9” button glows blue when the Flash Padlock is plugged into your computer and data on the device is being accessed or modified.

Additional Features

1) While you can write down your PIN on a piece of paper, Corsair also provides an online service where you can record the PIN for each of your Flash Padlocks. This could be very useful if you forget your PIN while travelling or are managing multiple Flash Padlocks for your company or family.
2) The security of the Flash Padlock is implemented at the hardware level so that if you plug a locked Flash Padlock into a USB port, your computer won’t even see that it is connected until you unlock it.
3) The Flash Padlock contains a battery to power the LEDs and security features when it isn’t connected to a USB port. They say the battery should last for 3 years of usage and that is user-replaceable. However, when I tried to open it up I stopped before I could actually see the battery because I was afraid I might break the plastic covering. On the positive side, you can still use the Flash Padlock even if the battery is dead: just plug it into a USB port for power before entering your PIN.
4) You can easily change your PIN at any time, or you can put your Flash Padlock into a permanently unlocked state if you wish to bypass the security features.

Do You Need One?

I don’t know what your needs are for data security, but I can pass on a couple of personal experiences that convinced me that I needed a device like the Flash Padlock.

The first experience was when I lost my previous flash drive just before going on a vacation. I had stored a great deal of information about my upcoming trip on the flash drive such as dates, reservation numbers, home address information, etc. I was very concerned because anyone that found (or possibly stole) the flash drive would know that nobody would be at my house for the 2 weeks I was travelling. I had also used this flash drive to transfer other confidential personal and business files over the course of the last year and I couldn’t remember which files were still on the drive when I lost it.

I worried about the lost information throughout the trip and for another week after I got back until I was lucky enough to find my flash drive sitting in the gutter next to my mailbox. Apparently it had fallen off my keychain when I picked up the mail just before leaving for my vacation. Even though the drive was pretty beaten up, I was incredibly relieved to know that the information was back in my hands.

Coincidentally, while I had been looking for my lost flash drive around work and at home I happened to find another flash drive in the parking lot at work. We asked around to find the owner but nobody claimed it, and after a couple of days we checked the contents to see if we could find the owner. In the process of examining the files on the drive to identify the owner I noticed that there were many spreadsheets, presentations and other files. I didn’t take a close look at contents of the files, but there was nothing to prevent me from doing so. We found enough information to identify the company that the owner of the flash drive worked for, and they were very relieved to have the information back.

Conclusion

If you every transfer files using a flash drive and you would like to keep that information confidential, the Flash Padlock is the most convenient and cost-effective solution I’ve found to do this. I now use my Flash Padlock to store all of the personal and business files I need to carry around with me.

The main tradeoff for all of this convenience is the size of the Flash Padlock. At 3⅜” l x ½”d x ⅞” w, the Flash Padlock is somewhat larger than the typical flash drive. While it easily fits in my computer bag or my pocket, it isn’t something I would attach to my keychain.

At $29.99 for the 1GB model and $39.99 for the 2GB model, I would say the Flash Padlock is competitively priced when compared to flash drives that don’t have any security features.

Pros

The easiest way to securely transport files using a USB flash drive
Premium security features without a premium price
Visual indicators make it easy to know when the device is locked or unlocked
Web site for recording PIN numbers allows you to retrieve lost PINs while travelling

Cons