When you need to keep data secure, encrypted usb flash drives are a better option than regular flash drives because encrypted usb flash drives let you encrypt and decrypt data on-the-fly. Encrypted usb flash drives can use fingerprint scanning authentication, software authentication, bluetooth authentication or a physical keypad like in the case of the SecureUSB KP.
The SecureUSB KP thumb drive is, second to bluetooth authentication, the most secure usb flash drive design because the configuration, typing the password, unlocking and locking is done on the device itself. This makes the drive super secure because when you plug it into a computer and it's not unlocked the computer doesn't get access to the SecureUSB KP usb drive, which limits the opportunities for hackers to exploit.
There are a total of ten buttons, one of them being the "key" button, which starts the unlocking and locking sequence of the flash drive. Unlocking the SecureUSB KP requires pressing the key button once to enable the pin entry and a second time to confirm the pin entry. Unlike most flash drives, the SecureUSB KP does integrate an rgb color display with three status led lights: a dash (blue light), unlocked padlock (red light) and locked padlock (green) to quickly show you when SecureUSB KP is locked and unlocked.
Once SecureUSB KP is unlocked, it will automatically launch the autoplay window software so, you can access the drive storage area, which contains four folders, two .exe applications and three pdf user manual files. The folder named "eset" is in reference to the included free 1-year license of ESET's antivirus software, which is preloaded with the drive and automatically scans for virus and malware of any files you transfer to the SecureUSB KP.
Another neat bit of software application that isn't preloaded on SecureUSB KP but it's very enticing is the ClevX USBtoCloud app, which automatically backs up the contents on the drive to the ClevX cloud via AES-256 file encryption. This "cloud" offering, certainly, makes a lot of sense in case you lose the drive or someone tries maliciously to "brute force hack" your SecureUSB KP to force the drive to self-destruct.
SecureUSB KP is equipped with brute force hacking, which is a feature with a double-edge sword because it will stop anyone who tries guessing your pin but it will also delete the data in the drive if they enter the pin incorrectly 10 times. Fortunately, you can somewhat save-guard yourself against this by creating an admin pin and a user pin so, if someone enters a user pin incorrectly 10 times, the flash drive will not erase its contents (it will only delete the user pin).
However, if the admin pin is entered wrong 10 times, the flash drive is designed to also erase the data, as well as the user/admin pin. Having the ability to automatically backup the contents of SecureUSB KP to a remote cloud so you won't lose your data forever does make a lot of sense especially when USB-Cloud does give you an option to encrypt your data to the cloud with a separate encryption key. Then again, backing up to a remote cloud would also defeat the purpose of SecureUSB KP, which is to physically store and carry private information on a physical device that you physically carry with you.
The incorrect pin entry has been designed to remember the number of incorrect pin attempts regardless of the lapse of time. SecureUSB KP is able to remember when different attempts were made and keep count, presumably, via non-volatile memory. The drive is also immune to "bad usb" as no firmware updates are allowed.
SecureUSB KP also has a neat trick up its sleeve with a "quickdump" feature that lets you manually destroy the data on the drive by entering a key press sequence. Press 7 + Key, then enter 999, then press 7 + Key.
SecureUSB KP's keypad and led lights are actually powered by an internal 3.7v 38mAh lithium polymer battery that gets recharged automatically every-time the drive gets plugged in to a computer. Because SecureUSB KP internal electronics rely on the built-in lithium polymer battery to work, SecureUSB KP lifespan depends on the battery, which in this case is 550+ life cycles from a full cycle of the battery going from full to empty to full. This means, if you never let the battery run flat, SecureUSB KP should last several years. The drive does come with a 3 year warranty so, the drive is covered for, at least, that long.
To lock SecureUSB KP, you simply hold down the key button but you can also lock the SecureUSB KP flash drive by physically removing the flash drive from the computer port, which is not only convenient but also clever. If someone tried to snatch the flash drive from your computer it would be futile because the flash drive would lock itself, literary, within a second of snatching it from the computer port.
Something else was noting about SecureUSB KP is that when it is inserted in the usb port of a computer, it somehow overrides the previous driver installation of whichever device was plugged-in to that usb port before.
The SecureUSB KP is also IP57 rated so, it's resistant against dust and water so, you can submerge it under water up to 1 meter.
SecureUSB KP body and outer enclosure cover are made of aluminium with a hard plastic rear stopper that integrates a an eyelet and rubber ring to protect the drive against water water ingress and to allow you to carry the drive with you on a keychain. Total dimensions are 78mm long (65mm without the cover), 20mm wide and 10mm thick. The weight is just 14 grams.
As far as the performance of the internal flash memory, SecureUSB KP uses usb 3.0/3.1 interface to store and transfer data to and from a computer. Data transfer speed is rated at up to 152 MB per second read and up to 118 MB per second write, which of course, depends on the computer SecureUSB KP is connected to and the port (usb 2.0, usb 3.0, etc). If SecureUSB KP is connected to a usb 2.0 of a computer with 16 GB ram and AMD 760G chipset, you can expect the following speeds:
SecureUSB KP features the same real-time, 256-bit AES – XTS 256-bit full-disk encryption (fde) found in the bluetooth ssd version where the whole disk volume gets encrypted via a single encryption key when locked and then decrypted when SecureUSB KP is unlocked. The other popular method of encryption for drives is encryption done on filesystem level, which uses different keys to encrypt different parts of the disk volume but not the filesystem metadata (i.e. file names, sizes, etc), making it not as secure overall compared to full-disk encryption.