Ironkey Secure Flash Drive Review

Looks & Build Quality

USB Duplicators by Nexcopy Right from the start you can literally feel the build quality of the IronKey. The drive weighs more than any flash drive I have ever had in my hand. This is because the brushed metal casing is filled with epoxy. This makes the drive waterproof and significantly harder to hack without destroying the chips or PCB. This also means that the drive is extremely damage resistant should it be dropped, thrown, or run over.

On the back side of the drive the IronKey has a place for you to scribe your name in it should you misplace it. Since the drive is encased in a metal housing, IronKey thought in advance and there is a film on the backside that you simply use a ball point pen to write your name on and it will scribe it in the metal. When I scribed EUSB into the back of it, the first time was unsuccessful as I didn't press hard enough. The second time, I retraced my lines (as best I could) much hard. After I peeled off the cover that you write on you can clearly see that EUSB is engraved for good. For businesses there is also an engraved serial number that is perfect for inventory tracking.

The IronKey is almost exactly the same size as a pack of gum.

Before and after scribing your name.

IronKey Performance
Perhaps one of the issues that most people will complain about is more security equals less performance. When you are working in an enterprise environment and have the high end hardware that can handle the increased overhead, it usually isn't noticeable. However when you place a device that is meant to carry a few gigabytes of data in the everyday user's hands, speed becomes a huge issue as they will not want to use it if they are forced to wait while their data transfers. IronKey has addressed this and tried their very best to make this drive as quick as possible while not circumventing security.

SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark

With HD Tach we can finally see that the write rates are right where they should be. The 15 MB/s write speeds are probably pretty close to max what you are going to be able to get with hardware encryption onboard. The drive is even a smidge faster than they claim with a 31.1 MB/s burst rate. CPU usage is also important to note this time around at a feeble 8%. Since the drive utilizes hardware encryption, this offloads all the encryption to the flash drive instead of your CPU and leaves you capable of still performing your tasks without being bogged down.

Even with encryption, HDTach shows the IronKey's speed is quite decent - thanks to onboard processor.

"The World's Best Secure Flash Drive"
While the IronKey may not be the world's fastest flash drive, it is touted as the most secure. A lot of work has gone into the IronKey to make this possible, but many may not quite understand what all it is that makes the IronKey so. Let's talk about the features that make it secure and how they protect you. This can be broken down into several categories so that we can better analyze it.

Physical Security While some may argue with this, they way that IronKey has designed the flash drive makes it tamper resistant. The casing that holds the flash drive is made out of a single piece of metal. It doesn't screw or snap together, there are no weld marks, and to get inside you have to cut it open. Once inside you have to make it through the epoxy that surrounds the flash drive itself. This is not an easy task and most attempts at this will end up destroying drive. Microsoft did this with the Xbox 360 to prevent people from exploiting the DVD firmware hacks and it has been proven quite successful. Even if someone manage to get through all of this they have to start dealing with the Cryptochip, something we have talked about but not mentioned specifically up till now.

The Cryptochip This is where it all happens, the brains of the operation. The Cryptochip is a cryptographic processor that is responsible for the encryption/decryption of the data on the IronKey yet so much more, but we will get into that soon enough. The Cryptochip provides hardware encryption and uses the government-approved AES CBC-mode 128-bit encryption. This encryption requires a 16 character password to access the data, but this is too difficult for most users to remember. Unlike most cryptographic chips that just put a bunch of zeros on the end of a user's password to form the encryption key, the IronKey uses a FIPS 140-2 compliant True Random Number Generator in the Cryptochip to create an encryption key which is unlocked by the user's password. This is much more secure.

Now back to that "so much more" we mentioned above. With most hardware based encryption methods, brute force attacks can be used to circumvent the encryption. Even those with some sort of password guessing counter are vulnerable as those who know what they are doing can reset the counter so they can keep trying. The Cryptochip takes it an extra step and has its own internal password guessing counter that isn't stored in flash memory so it can't simply be reset.

So what does it do when this counter reaches the limit? In something that seems straight from Mission: Impossible, it self-destructs. No, it isn't going to explode and there isn't going to be a zap or puff of smoke come from the drive but it is going to destroy the encryption keys and the data is going to be useless and permanently inaccessible. Be careful though as this counter goes for YOUR attempts to unlock the drive with your password. Fail 10 times in a row and it is all over with.

Since the IronKey utilizes hardware encryption, it is always on. There is no worrying about whether or not you locked the device or if it can be disabled. Period. This also means that malware can't disable or modify your encryption either.

Secure Software
The IronKey has some software included with it to help keep you a little safer as well. The IronKey provides private web surfing using IronKey's Secure Sessions service and the Firefox browser. The mobile version of Firefox keeps you from leaving cookies, history, and temp files on the computer you are browsing from and instead leaves it on your flash drive. The IronKey Secure Sessions service is built on Tor technology and I highly recommend that you check this out on Wiki for a deeper understanding as to how it works. Privoxy is also used to help protect your privacy, manage cookies, filter web page data, and more. All of this combines to protect you against pharming and phishing as well to provide complete anonymity online.

Firefox with the IronKey Toolbar and Tor enabled.

In the above screenshot you can see the Firefox web browser running from the IronKey. There are two things that you will notice different from a fresh installation of Firefox. First is the IronKey toolbar that gives you access bookmarks, password mangager, and form filler. Second is that on the bottom left of the screenshot you will see the IronKey logo with the green "ON". This tells you that Tor and Privoxy are enabled and your web sessions are now secure.

There is also a built in password manager with the IronKey to keep your personal information safe. When utilized properly, this will prevent you from falling victim to keylogging software. It is very simple to use and will pop up with a prompt just like Internet Explorer does when it detects you have entered a password on a webpage. The password manager also keeps track of your favorites so you can take them with the drive and provides you with a form filler for everything from basic name/address to credit cards.

IronKey Password Manager.

Oops, I forgot my password!
With such extreme security measures in place to protect your data, IronKey decided to cover you when you forget your password. The first time you access your IronKey, you are forced to setup an online account with them for My IronKey. This provides access to your password should you forget it. It isn't just a password protected account, but rather requires you to correctly answer four different questions to retrieve your password.

If you didn't retrieve your password, there is still a chance that you haven't lost your data. The IronKey also has the ability to back up the data that is on it. Simply tell the drive where to put the backup and it will create an encrypted backup for you to access later. If you fried your drive, you can buy a new one and restore it from the backup that you created but since the backup is encrypted you can rest easy knowing that someone can't access your data even if they get their hands on the file.

IronKey Secure Backup.

Recap
The IronKey is loaded with features that all revolve around security. The hardware protection that the IronKey offers is unmatched for consumer use and there is simply no way that if your IronKey falls into the wrong hands that the data will as well. Add the software that is bundled with it and you have a great winner that doesn't cut any corners. While there may be faster or larger drives available on the market, none of them can boast the protection and peace of mind that the IronKey can deliver.

At $79 for the 1GB drive, the IronKey definitely isn't for everyone, nor is it meant to be (the 2GB drive costs $109 and the 4GB is $149). Instead it is for those that have a need to protect the data that they carry with them. If you are looking for a drive to carry your music and homework on then you will want to look elsewhere for something that suits your needs better but if you are needing to carry sensitive data with you such as financial information or ePHI, then the IronKey is right up your alley.

Where to Buy?

Get IronKey 4GB now for $124.98 at Amazon.com Marketplace Get IronKey 4GB now for $148.57 at Next Warehouse

Reviewed by Zac O'Vadka, Contributing Editor