USB flash drives don’t come much tougher than Kingston’s IronKey D300. Following a validation process, the Kingston IronKey D300, along with the IronKey D300S and IronKey D300SM (serialized and managed serialized versions with etched barcodes and serial numbers) have been given NATO Restricted Level Certification.
This means the drives are now listed in the NATO Information Assurance Product Catalogue (NIAPC) for security products that meet NATO’s nations, civil and military bodies’ operational requirements.
Must read: Don’t buy these Apple products: February 2020 edition
I’ve tested the IronKey D300 a while back, and it’s an overwhelmingly impressive device. Built — perhaps that should be overbuilt — for ruggedness and security, the electronics are housed in a durable zinc casing and the electronics are encased in tamper-evident epoxy resin for added durability as well as physical security.
The IronKey D300 is FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified, and features 256-bit AES hardware encryption in XTS mode. It also comes with nice security features such as making use of digitally signed firmware that makes it immune to attacks such as BadUSB, and it enforces complex password rules with minimum characteristics, and the flash drive locks down and reformats after ten invalid attempts to protect against brute force attacks.
Furthermore, all data encryption and decryption is done on the drive, with no trace left on the host system.
“We are pleased that the IronKey D300 series drives are now certified, joining some of our previous encrypted USB drives that were certified in the past, like the D100 and D200. This signifies to customers that IronKey is a well-known and trusted brand throughout NATO and its member government agencies for securing data on a restricted level,” said Oscar Escayola, BM Flash Manager EMEA. “Kingston is committed to creating encrypted USBs that protect military and government level data, so customers with strong data protection requirements can be assured that it will meet their data security demands when sensitive data is in transit.”
The IronKey D300 is available in capacities from 4GB up to 128GB.
See also:
