Kingston’s new USB drive features a frankly unreal amount of military-grade security

Kingston Digital has unveiled the Kingston IronKey Keypad 200 (KP200), which the company claims is the industry’s first drive to deliver a new level of military-grade security for consumer data.

The KP200 features FIPS 140-3 Level 3 security – approved by the US Secretary of Commerce in March 2019, FIPS 140-3 Level 3 is currently the highest security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules, replacing FIPS 140-2.

Measures that increase USB security may be much needed for consumers and businesses everywhere, as these remain a common endpoint used by cybercriminals to infiltrate organizations; cybersecurity researchers from Red Canary recently discovered a new worm-like malware that spreads offline using infected USBs.

What does it offer?

The new drive offers XTS-AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption as part of a “feature-rich” and operating system-independent alphanumeric keypad. 

The KP200 also incorporates a built-in rechargeable battery, so users can unlock the drive using the keypad for PIN access, without using the accompanying software. 

Once unlocked, users can access their data by plugging the drive into any device that supports USB Type-A Flash storage, making it a plug-and-play device across different IT ecosystems.

In addition, the drive’s circuitry is coated with tamper-evident, tough epoxy to prevent access to its internal components without damaging them. 

The KP200’s keypad is also coated with a protective polymer layer to prevent the analysis of fingerprints on the keys.

In addition, KP200 supports a multi-PIN option, allowing the use of separate admin or user PINs. KP200 locks the user PIN after ten failed login attempts, but if both PINs are enabled, the admin can be used to restore a user PIN and access the drive. 

According to Kingston, if the admin PIN itself is incorrectly entered ten times in a row, the built-in brute force attack protection will crypto-erase the drive, permanently destroying the data and resetting the device.

Additionally, the KP200 can apparently safeguard against malware from untrusted systems with two different Read-Only modes, enabling admins to write-protect the drive during a specific session or globally across user sessions.

• Do any offerings from Kingston Digital feature on our list of the best USB drives?