Originally Posted by
birdstrike
It is indeed fugly, but it beats the other solutions hands-down as far as the HW/SW encryption/security implementation goes.
Well, it's in hardware. I suppose that's a plus, but that limits the flexibility somewhat. Given the other possible holes in any crypto implementation (notably the host platform itself), I don't know how much incremental security it offers for the average joe. I'm pretty certain (for personal use) that the incremental cost of an ironkey versus buying the same sized "normal" flash drive and using truecrypt on it is better spent on the later-mentioned car payment. YMMV.
On the upside, I suppose offloading the encryption cycles is helpful, although given the speed (and number) of modern CPUs combined with the actual write speed to a USB key kind of negates the advantage somewhat.
I drive a Ford, but for encrypting my data I can afford the best of breed. That's the beauty of technology.
Best of breed is a strech. I drive a Lexus, but somehow sleep well at night with various approaches to data security that don't include Ironkey.
Sandisk and the others are rushing products to market to catch up. . .[/QUOTE]