Kingston, DTS/2GB USB Flash Drive (retail)

List Price: $99.99 Discount Price: $79.95

Features:

• Capacities1 - 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
• Secure - utilizes 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware-based encryption (privacy zone)
• Waterproof - protects against water damage2
• Fast - data transfer rates of up to 24 MB/sec. read and up to 10 MB/sec. write3
• Guaranteed -- five-year warranty

Customer Reviews:

Not Bad, but not Cheap [Posted on 2006-12-27]
Using an encrypted storage device lessens my concern that if my USB drive is lost or stolen, the contents will be misappropriated. Even if I'm not carrying sensitive information (and I'm not), using encryption seems like a straightforward way to reduce risk.

Is it worth it? I guess that depends. If your USB drive is full of videos you downloaded off Youtube, maybe not. If it's got the latest copy of your company's top-secret marketing plan, maybe so.

Kingston describes this particular drive as a consumer-grade device, as distinguished from an almost-identical "privacy edition." The primary difference is that the DT Secure allows the user to select the percentage of the total capacity that is encrypted, while the Privacy Edition is 100% encrypted. The Privacy Edition also enforces a "strong password" policy that requires alpha and numeric characters, minimum length, etc. Also, these are Windows-only devices, at least as far as encryption is concerned -- Windows 2000 SP3 or above, or Windows XP.

I encrypt just about everything, so I probably should have waited for the Privacy Edition to hit the market. I got impatient and bought this model (the DT Secure) instead. The partitioning process is painless; I set mine up to use 1.5MB encrypted with the remainder unencrypted. Kingston describes these as the "privacy" and "public" zones, respectively.

Access to the privacy zone is by a user-defined password. Kingston states that the DT Secure will lock the privacy zone after 10 failed authentications (in order to foil a brute-force or dictionary attack). In the event that the privacy zone is locked, the drive must be reformatted, which will destroy the encrypted data. I have not tested the failed-authentication lockout. FWIW, the DT Secure stores a password hint with the password.

I've used the DT Secure with various XP desktops and laptops, and it works pretty well. When you plug the drive into a USB port, you get a Windows Explorer display of the contents of the public zone. One of the items in the public zone is a small (1.5 KB) executable that will authenticate you into the privacy zone. If you authenticate successfully, you get a Windows Explorer display of the contents of the privacy zone. There's a "logout" executable in the privacy zone; the authentication system is also smart enough to log you out if you simply yank the drive out of the USB port.

In the couple months that I've had it, working with files on the DT Secure has been uneventful. I haven't encountered any problems using or copying content, and performance seems at least as good as any other USB drive I've used. The device itself is slightly longer and thicker than some other USB drives I've used, but at roughly 3" long and 1/2" thick, it's sufficiently portable. Kingston says that the case is "waterproof titanium-coated stainless steel." I have no idea if that's true, but the thing feels pretty solid and has withstood the rigors of my shirt and pants pockets. I just took a closer look at it, and the matte-finish surface shows no scratches or signs of wear.

The big question about the Data Traveler Secure is whether or not you want to pay a substantial premium for hardware encryption. If you need encrypted USB storage, and work in a Windows XP environment, this (or the 100%-encrypted Privacy Edition) might be worth a closer look.

Data throughput is slower than other USB drives / the drive weighs more than most plastic USB thumbdrives. [Posted on 2007-09-23]
Data throughput is slower than other USB drives / the drive weighs more than most plastic USB thumbdrives.

You don't have to buy this to get free and seamless encryption for jump drives if you are using XP, Vista or even Windows 2000.

There IS NO SOFTWARE INSTALLATION when you insert the drive, instead the DTSP_Launcher.exe applet will autorun (if enabled) and walk you through the password setup process, and create a custom hint.

If you fail to enter the password 10 consecutive times, the disk will destroy the protected data with a thorough wipe, we couldn't restore the data with Sysinternals Disk Commander or SmartUnDelete.

Data transfer from the encrypted partition is slower than other jump drives we use, it seems comparable to the latency we encounter when using NTFS EFS formatted disks.

The disadvantage to NTFS EFS is you have to import the decryption certificate / key onto any system you wish to read the encrypted data, unless the key is deleted when done then any data encrypted and stored anywhere can be read by the importing computer.

Titanium casing is plastic hybrid and has some noticeable but not necessarily arduous weight, if you are used to carrying it inside your pocket you'll notice if it falls out.
--------- Management ---------
Inside Win32 DiskManager the drive appears as multiple partitions, the first is a virtual CD-ROM about 6MB in size, this contains the DTSP_Launcher.exe, the encrypted partition will appear as a Removable Disk.

The DTSP_Launcher.exe applet remains resident in the application bar tray and can be dynamically unloaded.

Overall, we recommend it because it is straightforward to use, doesn't install software onto your computer and thoroughly destroys the data when necessary.

Nice product, not sure about software [Posted on 2008-01-20]
At its premium price, this drive may only appeal to people who like the feel of smooth metal in their hands instead of plastic and/or those who need or want the security. It carries a 5 year warranty, so I'm expecting it to really last, unlike my last flash which died suddenly after less than a year of extremely light use.

The software functions like this: You have the option to set up a "private area". It can be from zero to almost the whole drive capacity. You set a password, and in the event someone tries to get into the private "zone," upon the tenth incorrect password supplied the drive FORMATS itself. This means that all the contents on the stick are ERASED. So if you are someone who often takes 8-10 tries to remember your passwords for things, you may want to keep this in mind.

I am having a problem that I don't know whether it is a "lemon" unit I got, or if I'm having a software conflict. One symptom of a possible conflict is that my Epson Stylus CX5800F printer, which is also considered a USB Mass Storage Device by Windows XP, has started giving me comm errors or just not printing, but there's no error on the panel, and it will photocopy just fine. Sometimes the Kingston MyDataZone software won't be on the stick when I plug it in, and sometimes Windows will see the stick but says it "may not work properly." Kingston customer service got back to me very quickly and has offered to change out the Flash Drive, which I highly appreciate! I'm just waiting to make sure it's not a software conflict rather than a bad unit before using that option.

I do like the stick very much, and I'm sure that whatever the problem is it can be worked out. If you must carry confidential or sensitive material with you on one of these drives, it's nice to know that most people will never be able to get at it.

No Mac OS support [Posted on 2008-08-07]
I have this drive (issued at work), and while it works fine in Windows, I will automatically give a non-OS specific device that does not function in Mac/Linux a 0 rating. There is no reason why Kingston couldn't make this drive work in other OS environments. Part of the usefulness of a thumb drive is the ability to move files between computers and across OSes, and this one fails the test.

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