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A tank of a USB flash drive

25.10.2006
From the moment you pick up the new DataTraveler Secure USB flash drive from Kingston Technology, you notice something different from other recent entrants into this market. This drive is bigger, heavier and dark metallic gray. It appears to be made to take abuse, and with 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption and password protection, it's also as secure a drive as you can purchase today -- with perhaps the exception of a biometrics-enabled drive (i.e. SanDisk's Cruzer Profile).

The drive is aimed at the retail and SMB marketplace.

Unlike other USB drives, which are trending toward being smaller, Kingston went the other direction. Its drive is almost a full inch longer than other premium drives such as SanDisk's Cruzer Titanium drive and more than a half inch longer than Lexar's JumpDrive USB flash drives. This has to do with the fact that Kingston's drive is all about data protection, and not about functionality, such as you get with Lexar's PowerToGo or SanDisk's U3 smart drive technology, which allows you to store Windows PC user preferences, profiles and settings.

Kingston's DataTraveler flash drive is waterproof in up to four feet of water and comes in a titanium-coated, stainless steel case. The DataTraveler is also among the fastest drives on the market. This USB 2.0 compliant flash drive can transfer data while encrypting it at 24MB/sec reads and 10MB/sec writes. By comparison the Lexar JumpDrive Lightening, peaks out at 30MB/sec reads and 21MB/sec writes, but its 256-bit AES data encryption feature will slow it down somewhat because it is not hardware based.

The DataTraveler comes with MyDataZone software for password access control to different partitions you can create on the drive. In 2007, Kingston will ship the DataTraveler Secure ' Privacy Edition, featuring a password protocol that locks you out after ten consecutive failed password attempts.

One thing that did surprise me about this sturdy drive was the dinky 2-inch-long lanyard. It was so thread-thin that I wasn't sure whether to attach it or floss with it. It is, however, strong. I couldn't break it no matter how hard I pulled on it.