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Everything USB 
USB 3.0 Flash Drives
When it comes to portable drives, especially flash drives, some people have a need for speed while others value security above all else. Then there is the third class of people who want it all; they want speed, security, portability AND ease of use that only a flash drive can offer. For this elite clientele, Super Talent has you covered with their SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive. Is this a drive that can really be all things to all people?
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USB 3.0 Flash Drives Super Talent SuperCrypt Secure Flash Drive Review
Form Factor
Even by just looking at the Super Talent SuperCrypt you know its big. To be precise it is 3.74" x 1.34" x 0.6" (95mm x 34mm x 15.4mm). To put this in perspective this drive is slightly "taller" than a 2.5" hard drive, is almost as deep as a 3.5" hard drive but is luckily a lot thinner than either! The very first thing I though of when seeing this shiny metallic beast was it was an over sized "zippo" lighter! This probably is because it uses a shiny "metallic silver" plastic for its body that is very striking looking, yet does have a similar shape to that of an old fashioned cigarette lighter. The reason Super Talent made the SuperCrypt, "super sized" (and the RAIDDrive which share the same size chassis) is simple: this is not your typical flash drive. This bad boy is a true SATA solid state drive with a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 bridge chip tacked on to make it work over USB rather than SATA. This is also the secret to its power and its enhanced performance. The other reason for the added girth is the fact that this bad boy also has built in hardware AES encryption / decryption abilities. This combined with its super performance is what makes this a SuperCrypt flash drive. While it is a big looking drive, it does not weigh nearly as much as you would think it should. I wouldn't call it "light" let alone use words like "flimsy" as it does have a good robust feel to it, but it is not as heavy as a brick either! This certainly is a good thing as while it is as large as brick no one in their right minds would want to carry around a brick in their pants pocket no matter how fast a brick it was. Considering ultra portability is the whole reason the flash drive niche exists this is certainly a good thing.
The rear of the Super Talent 32GB SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive does have one nice feature worth mentioning. Much like most flash drives, this wee beastie has a integrated LED which glows when attached and blinks rapidly while being accessed; however unlike many (including the Super Talent 32GB Express Drive) this drive's LED glows a nice subdued blue when attached to a USB 3.0 port and red when attached to a USB 2.0 port. With a simple glance, you instantly know what kind of speed you are going to get out it.
Software & Encryption Overview
One of the biggest selling features of the Super Talent 32GB SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive is its built in hardware 128-bit AES encryption. AES is one of the better encryption schemes out there and the 10 pass 128-bit version is very, very strong. Having this built into the hardware and not software of the SuperCrypt is a great feature but does come with a few caveats. Before I get to these caveats if you are not precisely clear on what AES is and why it is so good (from both a security and performance point of view) here is a long graphical based explanation for it (that even has "TL;DR" versions built in!).
The first of these caveats is that unless you buy the PRO version, the SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive uses ECB or Electronic Code Block mode which is the equivalent of using a bank vault with 3 feet thick walls and 2 foot thick front door and sticking a hundred dollar lock on it. It will keep most people out and even some criminals but ECB really does negate a lot of the power of AES and if is going to be a weak link. It is literally one of the simples forms of modern encryption techniques you can use. This is not a good thing. Please don't get me wrong it still will be pretty difficult to break but it is for this reason I personally consider the SuperCrypt not acceptable for ultra sensitive records. This also explains the lack of FIPS higher level certification for this model. If you are storing company secrets on a flash drive (which is insane to begin with) splurge and get the Pro version which doesn't only use 256bit AES but uses XTS mode and not ECB.
Another nice feature is you can turn off the password protection and do a secure erase of it, without destroying your data! This is nice as if you decide at a later date that you really don't need all that encryption power, you won't have to spend any time reloading your precious data. This is a very sweet bonus. All in all, this software is certainly basic in its approach, but it is very straight forward and you don't need to be a crypto-analyst to use this beast!
The last thing worth mentioning is unlike the Super Talent 32GB Express Drive I reviewed recently the SuperCrypt does not come preloaded with the enhanced drivers. You need to literally go to Super Talent's website and download them manually. Super Talent helpfully includes a piece of paper to remind you of this and where you need to go, but this is an oversight and really, really is potential negative compared to the cheaper Express Drive which has that kick ass program built in. This drive needs those custom drivers to give you all its power, yet because you need to manually do it on every systme you use the SuperCrypt on this flash drive cant really be considered a "plug and play" device like the Express Drive is.
Even by just looking at the Super Talent SuperCrypt you know its big. To be precise it is 3.74" x 1.34" x 0.6" (95mm x 34mm x 15.4mm). To put this in perspective this drive is slightly "taller" than a 2.5" hard drive, is almost as deep as a 3.5" hard drive but is luckily a lot thinner than either! The very first thing I though of when seeing this shiny metallic beast was it was an over sized "zippo" lighter! This probably is because it uses a shiny "metallic silver" plastic for its body that is very striking looking, yet does have a similar shape to that of an old fashioned cigarette lighter. The reason Super Talent made the SuperCrypt, "super sized" (and the RAIDDrive which share the same size chassis) is simple: this is not your typical flash drive. This bad boy is a true SATA solid state drive with a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 bridge chip tacked on to make it work over USB rather than SATA. This is also the secret to its power and its enhanced performance. The other reason for the added girth is the fact that this bad boy also has built in hardware AES encryption / decryption abilities. This combined with its super performance is what makes this a SuperCrypt flash drive. While it is a big looking drive, it does not weigh nearly as much as you would think it should. I wouldn't call it "light" let alone use words like "flimsy" as it does have a good robust feel to it, but it is not as heavy as a brick either! This certainly is a good thing as while it is as large as brick no one in their right minds would want to carry around a brick in their pants pocket no matter how fast a brick it was. Considering ultra portability is the whole reason the flash drive niche exists this is certainly a good thing.
The rear of the Super Talent 32GB SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive does have one nice feature worth mentioning. Much like most flash drives, this wee beastie has a integrated LED which glows when attached and blinks rapidly while being accessed; however unlike many (including the Super Talent 32GB Express Drive) this drive's LED glows a nice subdued blue when attached to a USB 3.0 port and red when attached to a USB 2.0 port. With a simple glance, you instantly know what kind of speed you are going to get out it.
Software & Encryption OverviewOne of the biggest selling features of the Super Talent 32GB SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive is its built in hardware 128-bit AES encryption. AES is one of the better encryption schemes out there and the 10 pass 128-bit version is very, very strong. Having this built into the hardware and not software of the SuperCrypt is a great feature but does come with a few caveats. Before I get to these caveats if you are not precisely clear on what AES is and why it is so good (from both a security and performance point of view) here is a long graphical based explanation for it (that even has "TL;DR" versions built in!).
The first of these caveats is that unless you buy the PRO version, the SuperCrypt USB 3.0 flash drive uses ECB or Electronic Code Block mode which is the equivalent of using a bank vault with 3 feet thick walls and 2 foot thick front door and sticking a hundred dollar lock on it. It will keep most people out and even some criminals but ECB really does negate a lot of the power of AES and if is going to be a weak link. It is literally one of the simples forms of modern encryption techniques you can use. This is not a good thing. Please don't get me wrong it still will be pretty difficult to break but it is for this reason I personally consider the SuperCrypt not acceptable for ultra sensitive records. This also explains the lack of FIPS higher level certification for this model. If you are storing company secrets on a flash drive (which is insane to begin with) splurge and get the Pro version which doesn't only use 256bit AES but uses XTS mode and not ECB.
Another nice feature is you can turn off the password protection and do a secure erase of it, without destroying your data! This is nice as if you decide at a later date that you really don't need all that encryption power, you won't have to spend any time reloading your precious data. This is a very sweet bonus. All in all, this software is certainly basic in its approach, but it is very straight forward and you don't need to be a crypto-analyst to use this beast!
The last thing worth mentioning is unlike the Super Talent 32GB Express Drive I reviewed recently the SuperCrypt does not come preloaded with the enhanced drivers. You need to literally go to Super Talent's website and download them manually. Super Talent helpfully includes a piece of paper to remind you of this and where you need to go, but this is an oversight and really, really is potential negative compared to the cheaper Express Drive which has that kick ass program built in. This drive needs those custom drivers to give you all its power, yet because you need to manually do it on every systme you use the SuperCrypt on this flash drive cant really be considered a "plug and play" device like the Express Drive is. 
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