Manufacturer: iStorage UK | Model: IS-FL-DA3C-256-256 | Origin: Greenford, England
Website: www.istorage-uk.com | Price: £213 on Amazon
| Simplicity | Value | Documentation |
| 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Functionality | Performance | Overall |
| 5/5 | 5/5 | 96% |
What Is It In Under 20 Words?
An USB stick with inbuilt encryption & authentication to protect data stored on it.
What Does This Solve?
Everyone will remember the stories of London Heathrow airport losing an USB stick or HMRC via a contractor (Atos). These stories were some years back, but I am sure it still happens and USB sticks, normal ones have become cheaper & faster over the years. For statistics around MoD device losses see: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hundreds-of-electronic-devices-lost-or-stolen-from-mod/.
The earliest USB sticks only held 8MB of data which could store a few documents or a smaller number of photos. These days £12 gets you 128GB of storage which can gobble up the entire contents of your My Documents folder in minutes. USB sticks are small and can be lost in seconds without the owner noticing. Everyone can afford to lose £12 but what about the contents on it?
iStorage offers hardware encryption by default with brute force prevention enabled by default. Once the iStorage device is removed it locks and is useless if lost or stolen.
If you read up on the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) guidance on encryption it recommends using products which have a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification which most of iStorage’s range do. After losing an iStorage device you have confidence the chance of a data breach is incredibly slim and you can tell ICO or the regulators you met their recommendations to reduce the chance of a fine or bad publicity.
What Alternatives Are There?
We have all heard of Bitlocker for Windows or an option for MacOS which is similar to FileVault. Free they maybe they come with some cons: not enabled by default, brute forcing could work, reduced performance, low compatibility between other operating systems and does it really encrypt the whole drive?* *Think of data which was “erased” before encryption occurred which may be recoverable since these software options do not always encrypt the entire drive.
Other vendors are out their which produce hardware encrypted USB sticks, but few come close. Intergral Crypto series, Aegis and Kingston (inc. IronKey) just to name a few. Not all of these have FIPS certifications and often the authentication is handled by the operating system, i.e. a password which could be recorded by a keylogger (hardware or software) or spyware. iStorage authentication is done on the stick as well as encryption. Due to this it increases compatibility for usage based on device and operating system type.
What’s In The Box?
- USB stick
- Quickstart guide
- C to A adaptor
- Tamper resistant: the components are coated in epoxy resin which make it tough gaining access to internal components without wrecking the drive
- Brute force prevention: is enabled once the device is setup and the reaction varies based upon the scenario. Reactive controls either remove the user PIN or erase the entire stick
- No PIN no access: without authenticating and getting a green light the device you plug this into will see nothing
- Water resistant: met by a seal on the USB stick which is covered by the case
- Speedy: despite the inbuilt encryption it is still quick to transfer data to it and read
- Shock & crushproof: many times, I have dropped it and it always survives due to strong build quality of the USB stick & case
- Admin & user PINs: admin PIN is especially useful for business use or for individuals who may forget their user PIN
- Universal: since no software is required to use the stick it can work on multiple device types
- FIPS: 140-3 Level 3 with 4 being the highest. In theory 3 is really the highest since barely any products on the planet have a level 4 stamp
- Read only: Admins can turn on a read only mode which means users can read data not write
The Bad Perhaps just cost since they are pricey but then again there are few rivals which come close. Think of this like a bulletproof car it will cost you a lot, but you get strong protection.
Conclusion
If you want strong security for your data and peace of mind from theft/lost then this is the USB stick to go for.
dataShur Pro+C has all the features you need to protect your own private data or safeguard data at your government department, charity or private firm.
With NATO, NCSC (UK), NLNCSA (Netherlands) and NIST (US) agreeing you can’t get better.
At present it is the only product of its type in the world to get FIPS 140-3 (level 3) certification with 140-2 being the last standard.
Once setup it is simple to use, just press the key button, enter your PIN, press the key button again and insert, and use as you would any old USB stick.
Unboxing.
Quick start guide, and the full manual is on their official website.
Determining an admin and user PIN is setup correctly.
Achieved by simply pressing the key button once quickly.
Post successful authentication and ready to insert into a device.
Achieved by simply pressing the key button once quickly,
entering the user PIN and pressing the key button again.
Display of the drive by MacOS.
Disclaimer: Recently I purchased a dual pack of datAshur SD with 128GB MicroSD with my own money and this USB stick was given to me by iStorage with no preconditions for this review posted.