Self destructing USB drive.
 

Not sure it's useful to me, but I think it's cool. :)

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/99f1/

That's pretty cool.

I don't have any state secrets worthy of such high tech security though. :)

Even better, use Write Only Memory (WOM).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_Only_Memory

Then you never have to worry about somebody getting your data. :D

Eons ago, the second computer class I ever took. There was an article on the wall of the classroom about a write-only memory device. Unlike the examples in the Wikipedia article this wasn't truly write-only, it was a device that was fast to write and slow to read. It was used to store information that was unlikely to be needed but had to be kept just in case. (Such as the information to undo a failed operation.)

Jack Bauer had a self destructing one. He "programmed" it to burn itself up if used in any other PDA than his.

I don't think the TSA would allow any USB drives with detonators through security. Or maybe since it isn't a liquid, it is OK.

Corsair also do a "Padlocked" pendrive at http://www.corsair.com/products/padlock.aspx

Its a case of entering the PIN in before using it ....

*Good Morning Mr Phelps....Your mission, should you decide to accept it....... .... this pendrive will self destruct in 5 seconds* :D

So I bought a 4GB IronKey a couple of weeks ago. I really love this device.

Like most of us, I have dozens of accounts on-line, each with a unique ID/Password combination. Many of these accounts I access only rarely. Since I never write down passwords anywhere, and don't duplicate passwords, I often find myself in a lengthy password recovery process each time I need to access the account.

I now have access to all my password protected accounts from a device that lives in my pocket.

The IK comes with a password manager and a portable version of FireFox to allow portable sessions to be created from any system with a USB connection. Remove the IK and you remove your presence from that machine.

Access to the IK is via a single user-settable password. Data on the IK is protected by AES 256 encryption (Son of DES). Enter the password incorrectly 10 times and the data on the drive is physically, albeit silently, destroyed.

I know there are freeware programs like KeePass that can be loaded on conventional thumb drives, but they don't satisfy my sense of paranoia like the IK does. :D

It's not perfect, by any means, and I don't have 4GB of data that I need to protect, but it really suits my needs.

From painful experience, but not as painful as yours will be if .....
 

For your sake, back it up often.

(Speaking from experience, but not a fail ten times and it dies in front of your eyes painful experience. :eek: )

SC

I'm seriously thinking of buying a 1GB IK for backup, though backing up to an unmarked DVD would also work.

Even if it died and I had no backups I could use the site password recovery tools like I always have.

I'm afraid I don't see the point - if the encryption is any good (e.g. truecrypt) then it doesn't matter if they get your USB disk. It is secure against any number of password attempts.

Chuck Norris already hacked it.

That is true for today, but it is statistical security. The key might be broken on the first try. The key to security is to make it cost more to get the goods than the goods are worth.

If someone stole my laptop, and my laptop had an encrypted file with all my passwords. I would still feel compelled to go change all those passwords.

The IK also has a password generator, so my individual account passwords are now secure as well.

My firm handed out tens of thousands of devices like these - the Kingston DTE - about three years ago. Everything is encrypted and 10 failed attempts at the password re-formats the drive. We are required to use if for managing all client- and firm-related data. I don't know if it's physically secure (potted with epoxy), but the encryption should be as good on the bare chip as it is through the USB port.

I suppose throwing super-computer-class processing power at breaking the 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption is a possibility, but I'm not too worried

chuck norris doesn't need to hack things. he just stares at them until they give him the data.

This part doesn't seem very secure:

- If your Ironkey is lost, you can restore from a secure backup to a new Ironkey in minutes

(because I bet the backup machine doesn't self-destruct if someone tries to hack into it... not to mention all the people that have legitimate access to it)