With governments tightening up on data privacy requirements, Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Corp., OC’s largest consumer electronics maker, put its encryption-protected USB sticks on display at major tech show this month in Chicago.
“On the outside, they may look like a regular USB stick, but the difference is all on the inside,” Richard Kanadjian, the company’s enterprise USB security manager, told the Business Journal on Sept. 11. “It’s what’s under the hood.”
“You basically set up an access code to use it,” Kanadjian said of Kingston’s high-end storage products, which are sold under the product line of its flash memory division Kingston Digital. “You store your data on it. Your data is also encrypted at the same time.”
He said most of the company’s USB drives offered use “military grade security.” The protections also include extra-strong epoxy glue in the IronKey drive to avoid tampering with the chip in case a data thief gets inside the device.
“If you have a consumer drive and you lose it, you have to worry about your data,” Kanadjian said. “With our encrypted drives, if you lose it, you don’t have to worry. Chances are very low that somebody would be able to access your data.”
$65 Cost
Kingston Digital displayed its IronKey and DataTraveler encrypted USB flash drives at the Global Security Exchange, the leading trade event for cybersecurity professionals.
Kanadjian said IronKey provides “probably the best security you can get on a USB drive” and its target markets include governments and large enterprises. IronKey starts at $65 apiece.
The top-of-the line devices lock out after 10 unsuccessful password attempts and then make the user set a new password, wiping out all data and resetting encryption keys. The devices can also be fine-tuned depending on the customer’s needs.
Airport Protection
Governments are demanding greater privacy protections. That includes the sweeping General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, the renewed digital-age importance of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) in the U.S., and the new California Consumer Privacy Act taking effect in January.
Kanadjian said secure USB drives provide protection, while insecure Wi-Fi systems at airports and other places expose the user to dangerous breaches.
“When I travel, I always carry my files with me on an encrypted drive,” he said, eliminating the chance of a breach while he is waiting for the next plane.
