IronKey is the brand name of a family of encrypted USB portable storage devices owned by Kingston Digital, the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc.
IronKey is the brand name of a family of encrypted USB portable storage devices owned by Kingston Digital, the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc.
From 2005 to 2012, IronKey was an Internet security and privacy company based in California. IronKey's founding was partially funded by the U.S. federal government, with a grant of US$1.4 million through the Homeland Security Research Projects Agency. [1] [2] [3] Their products have been used by the U.S. government in various areas. [4] [5]
Imation acquired IronKey in September 2011. [6] In October 2012, IronKey rebranded itself as Marble Security, and the IronKey brand became wholly owned by Imation. [7] [8] As part of Imation, the IronKey portfolio includes products and intellectual property from the former IronKey, as well as technologies from Imation acquisitions of MXI Security and ENCRYPTX. [9] [10]
On February 8, 2016, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., announced it had acquired the USB technology and assets of IronKey from Imation. [11]
On February 8, 2016, DataLocker Inc. announced it had acquired Ironkey's Enterprise Management Service (EMS) and other assets from Imation. [12]
In November 2018, Kingston announced that the IronKey had new features and was now FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified. [13]
In early 2021, a reported 7,000 Bitcoin were stranded in a IronKey flash drive due to a forgotten password. The owner, Programmer Stefan Thomas, did not utilize the Enterprise Management Service for password recovery. [14] In 2023, a company named Unciphered found a way to unlock IronKey USB sticks similar to the one Thomas used. [15]
Among Imation’s IronKey products are flash drives certified by Microsoft for Windows To Go. [16] Windows To Go is an enterprise feature of Windows 8 that enables the creation of a workspace that can be booted from a USB-connected external drive on PCs that meet Microsoft certification requirements, regardless of the operating system running on the PC. A Windows To Go product, the IronKey Workspace W300, received the Editors’ Choice accolade from PC Magazine in February 2013. [17]
Windows 8:
Windows 7:
GlassBridge Enterprises, Inc., formerly Imation Corporation, is an American holding company. Through its subsidiary, Glassbridge focuses primarily on investment and asset management.
A flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and usually weighs less than 30 g (1 oz). Since first offered for sale in late 2000, the storage capacities of USB drives range from 8 megabytes to 256 gigabytes (GB), 512 GB and 1 terabyte (TB). As of 2023, 2 TB flash drives were the largest currently in production. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the exact type of memory chip used, and are thought to physically last between 10 and 100 years under normal circumstances.
The SAM Lock Tool, better known as Syskey, is a discontinued component of Windows NT that encrypts the Security Account Manager (SAM) database using a 128-bit RC4 encryption key.
The Encrypting File System (EFS) on Microsoft Windows is a feature introduced in version 3.0 of NTFS that provides filesystem-level encryption. The technology enables files to be transparently encrypted to protect confidential data from attackers with physical access to the computer.
Ransomware is a type of malware that permanently blocks access to the victim's personal data unless a "ransom" is paid. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a properly implemented cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem, and difficult-to-trace digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used for the ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult.
BitLocker is a full volume encryption feature included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. It is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes. By default, it uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm in cipher block chaining (CBC) or "xor–encrypt–xor (XEX)-based Tweaked codebook mode with ciphertext Stealing" (XTS) mode with a 128-bit or 256-bit key. CBC is not used over the whole disk; it is applied to each individual sector.
Kingston Technology Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells and supports flash memory products, other computer-related memory products, as well as the HyperX gaming division. Headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, United States, Kingston Technology employs more than 3,000 employees worldwide as of Q1 2016. The company has manufacturing and logistics facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Taiwan, and China.
FreeOTFE is a discontinued open source computer program for on-the-fly disk encryption (OTFE). On Microsoft Windows, and Windows Mobile, it can create a virtual drive within a file or partition, to which anything written is automatically encrypted before being stored on a computer's hard or USB drive. It is similar in function to other disk encryption programs including TrueCrypt and Microsoft's BitLocker.
Windows Vista introduced a number of new I/O functions to the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. They are intended to shorten the time taken to boot the system, improve the responsiveness of the system, and improve the reliability of data storage.
This is a technical feature comparison of different disk encryption software.
Private Disk is a disk encryption application for the Microsoft Windows operating system, developed by Dekart SRL. It works by creating a virtual drive, the contents of which is encrypted on-the-fly; other software can use the drive as if it were a usual one.
In computer security, a cold boot attack is a type of side channel attack in which an attacker with physical access to a computer performs a memory dump of a computer's random-access memory (RAM) by performing a hard reset of the target machine. Typically, cold boot attacks are used for retrieving encryption keys from a running operating system for malicious or criminal investigative reasons. The attack relies on the data remanence property of DRAM and SRAM to retrieve memory contents that remain readable in the seconds to minutes following a power switch-off.
Secure USB flash drives protect the data stored on them from access by unauthorized users. USB flash drive products have been on the market since 2000, and their use is increasing exponentially. As businesses have increased demand for these drives, manufacturers are producing faster devices with greater data storage capacities.
The SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise was an encrypted USB flash drive. This secure USB drive imposed a mandatory access control on all files, storing them in a hardware-encrypted, password-protected partition. The Cruzer Enterprise is designed to protect information on company-issued USB flash drives.
The IBM 4764 Cryptographic Coprocessor is a secure cryptoprocessor that performs cryptographic operations used by application programs and by communications such as SSL private key transactions associated with SSL digital certificates.
This is a technical feature comparison of commercial encrypted external drives.
Check Point GO is a USB drive that combines an encrypted USB flash drive with virtualization, VPN and computer security technologies to turn a PC into a secure corporate desktop. By plugging Check Point GO into the USB port of a Microsoft Windows OS-based PC or laptop, users can launch a secure virtual workspace that is segregated from the host PC. This allows users to securely access company files and applications from any remote location, including insecure host environments such as a hotel business center or Internet café.
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Enterprise versions prior to the May 2020 update, that allows the system to boot and run from certain USB mass storage devices such as USB flash drives and external hard disk drives which have been certified by Microsoft as compatible. It is a fully manageable corporate Windows environment. The development of Windows To Go was discontinued by Microsoft in 2019, and is no longer available in Windows 10 as of the May 2020 update.
The CryptoLocker ransomware attack was a cyberattack using the CryptoLocker ransomware that occurred from 5 September 2013 to late May 2014. The attack utilized a trojan that targeted computers running on Microsoft Windows, and was believed to have first been posted to the Internet on 5 September 2013. It propagated via infected email attachments, and via an existing Gameover ZeuS botnet. When activated, the malware encrypted certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers. The malware then displayed a message which offered to decrypt the data if a payment was made by a stated deadline, and it threatened to delete the private key if the deadline passes. If the deadline was not met, the malware offered to decrypt data via an online service provided by the malware's operators, for a significantly higher price in bitcoin. There was no guarantee that payment would release the encrypted content.
Nitrokey is an open-source USB key used to enable the secure encryption and signing of data. The secret keys are always stored inside the Nitrokey which protects against malware and attackers. A user-chosen PIN and a tamper-proof smart card protect the Nitrokey in case of loss and theft. The hardware and software of Nitrokey are open-source. The free software and open hardware enables independent parties to verify the security of the device. Nitrokey is supported on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD.
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