Customer Reviews

IronKey 4 GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted USB 2.0 Flash Drive D20402A

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What it does, it does pretty well. It looks dang good. It's a great secure thumb drive. There are a few shortcomings that are pretty well documented in Ironkey's forum. To the Company's credit, they usually respond truthfully and say "Yep. Thanks for pointing that out. That doesn't work quite right. We're working on it." But it's still kind of disappointing.

Issues I've had in the week I've had it and used it include the following:

* When you enter a login on a web site, it asks if you want it to save the info in its PW manager. If you make a mistake and click "Never" rather than "Cancel" or if you clicked "Never" and change your mind, it will not let you recover to a prior state and enroll that site for auto login. As configured, "Never" really does mean "Never". Never ever ever.

* The control screen interface is slick, but if you add portable apps, there is apparently no way to add them to the Ironkey's control screen. To launch them, you have to go into its secure files tab (Windows Explorer type interface) and find your executable in order to launch it.

Don't get me wrong, I like the product. It lets me do some real cool things I wouldn't otherwise be able to do. But fix some of the bugs, and you have a super product.

I have the Iron Key 4gb and I cannot live without it. As said in some other reviews and as admitted by IK themselves, there are some convenience features that would be nice to have. They are very open on their forum about both strengths and weaknesses, reasons why they did things as they did and plans for the future.

This is not a toy, it is a high security device. If you really want a flash drive with some extras like TrueCrypt, this is probably not the best value. If you want a drive that has the most solid encryption for the money, this is it. Good security does come at some price of convenience though.

The "Secure Sessions" feature is a very nice feature for people who need to communicate on the web while hiding their location or preventing local intrusion to their messages. An example of legitimate use would be someone who is being stalked and does not wish their place in the world known. It is also useful for security administrators who wish to investigate intrusions without tipping their hand that they are aware of the intrusion.

As with all security systems, if you really are counting on privacy and security then you should carefully read about the features and be sure you are using them correctly.

I have started storing things on my IK that I would not store even on my home PC in cleartext.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got my IronKey 4GB model that it feels far more solid and reliable than other usb flash drives which are typically made of plastic, or a hollow metal shell. This baby is waterproof and tamper-resistant. It's solid.

I use it on Windows XP. It mounts a read-only partition with the unlocking control panel software. You simply enter your password and it then mounts up the encrypted partition. Read/write speeds are very fast. It comes with an onboard FireFox browser and a cool password manager. IronKey are giving out online services for password backups and restore.

All in all, a highly secure product, designed by security guys, but very easy to use. The portable browsing and password manager give Internet security and portability.

I purchased one IronKey (1 GB) because I needed a secure way to carry a very large number of records files, mostly Word and Excel files. Because I had tried a number of flash drives and other hardware, I didn't think any kind of flash drive would be adequate. However, I was surprised: the IronKey performed beautifully, was simple to use and very secure. Perfect!

I have only minor complaints, fewer than I've had for other new products. The secure password storage feature is very handy, but it can be an annoyance on occasion. And I can't use two IronKeys simultaneously on one computer, when that would make it much easier to back up from one IronKey to another.

But I have purchased two more: one for my wife (2 GB) a 2 GB for me. Now I use my first one for data backup to my larger one. They are soooo easy to carry about: I attached a cell phone mini lanyard and keep them clipped inside my planner.

The IronKeys seem to use a bit more power resource than some flash drives, probably a reflection of the fact that so many of the features are hardware based. So it you put it in a usb slot shared by other energy intensive hardware, such as a web cam, it could keept he other from working smoothly. But I have not run into a problem that couldn't be solved easily. Works with Vista or XP.

Tech support and forum support are great. Responsive and fast, but not needed very much.

A truly indispensable bit of hardware at a great price. Really great as replacements for my Zip and Jazz drives, and handier than mini hard drives. I'm really, really pleased with IronKeys.

Researched the product, and while a bit larger and heavier than I expected...it otherwise seems to work as they advertise. The vendor who sold the product delivered as promised - new device...was also shipped promptly. If you are concerned about your data being compromised, great product. And it is faster than the cheapie sticks I have used in the past. I actually run many portable applications from the IronKey...including the whole OpenOffice suite plus FireFox. I don't plan on testing the self-destruct mechanism but do hope that works if I ever lose the thing.

As far as data protection goes, this flash drive is the most secure option I could find on the internet, and i did quite a bit of research before my purchase. It runs everything great. I haven't had a problem with any freeze ups or crashes or lost data...yet. I always hit the the notification in the corner about removing the flash drive safely from windows before pulling it out, but I do that more as a good practice in an investment, similar to changing the oil in your car on a regular basis, since these little drives can cost 4 times as much as their non-encrypted counterparts from other competitors. The password manager/bookmark manager are nice, but I use other programs that are a little more robust to handle that sort of information: I.E. foxmarks for firefox to keep track of bookmarks, as well as the portable version of keepass for organizing the login info from various websites.

My only problem with the product is it has a little control panel launcher that, in it's current software version, doesn't allow any other programs to be launched from that control panel window except for firefox. Everything else you launch just like you would from a standard file tree in windows explorer after you've unlocked the drive. On their website they address this issue and it is one of the most requested features on the forums. They say they'll have an update in the future that addresses this problem, but as of right now, that's how it's gotta be used. Other than that, I think the product is nearly perfect for the purpose of protecting data. I gave it 4 stars because the password manager/bookmark manager isn't robust enough for my purposes, and for the other reason i stated earlier.I hope this review was informative enough for anyone that's still on the fence.

IronKey 4GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive

I purchased one of these IronKey 4gb flash drives a while back and I've been very pleased with how it works. The encryption is quick and doesn't interfere with anything. The read/write speed (30mb/s & 20mb/s respectively) is very speedy as well, by far the fastest flash drive I've ever owned!

I work in the IT industry and frequently need to grab copies of data files, backups, etc., and this flash drive is my first choice because it is secure (helpful for transporting sensitive information), fast, and reliable.

Overall, I'm very happy with this flash drive! :)

I needed an encrypted secure means of transporting files between various workstations that met policy standards. This does the trick. It is pricey. I purchased the 4gig, but I would have liked to have bought the 8gig for more space, but I thought it was too overpriced.

First of all, this is a slick product. It is very easy to use, and if you have low grade security needs I would highly recommend it.

Now, how secure is it actually? It's much toted self destruct feature basically allow you to choose very bad passwords, and still get away with it. So if you want to use your middle name, feel free, the chance of guessing that in ten tries is fairly low.

Now, other than allowing you to get away with choosing bad passwords, does this actually buy you any improvement over say truecrypt or some other software solution? No, and I would trust it even less than a software solution that had source code available.

I find it telling that Ironkey's solution for providing Linux support was to create only a *binary* executable. Basically, they do not provide any substantial public documentation on how the product actually works at a level that would allow you to verify that the basic operation is secure. Have they done stupid mistakes in the implementation of sending the password to the device? Beats me, and they aren't providing the information to check this. I would recommend reading through the faq and notice how many of the answers to "is this secure" type questions are basically, trust us. Note that if you have firmware version 1.3, it has received FIPS-140-2 Level 2 validation, so there is that assurance that a third party looked at one version of it, but I trust this far less than if anyone could check the security.

How about the self destruct feature? FIPS-140-2 Level 4 (a higher level than was achieved by Ironkey) requires that the critical security parameters (such as keys and such) are zeroed. I actually haven't figured out if the thing really self-destructs or just zeros out the keys. If it really does become inoperable, then that seems excessive and more like security theater than actual security.

Basically, this comes down to do you trust Ironkey? If I turn up my paranoia level, I can envision creating the Ironkey company solely to steal secrets from other companies. Think about it, Ironkey is running *their* code with access to *your* data (possibly even on the crypto chip that is protected inside the device), and if you use their internet tools, they even have access to information that you want to keep secret, and an encrypted connection to the internet. Ironkey probably is not doing this, but ask yourself, how important is protecting your data?

If I was going to war, I would take my Iron Key with me. Seriously, this device means business..no it means secure business. The setup is easy and it performs flawlessly. It is also one of the fastest USB drives I have tested. The Secure Sessions function is fast and represents what the TOR (The Onion Router) network can be. The on board Firefox browser is the best choice and is hands down the best browser in the world. There is one annoyance with this drive, however. The Portable bookmarks cannot be organized in any logical order; they are simply saved chronologically. This does not facilitate finding one of them 100 bookmarks later. Iron Key developers do however reveal that a solution is in the works, along with other upgrades in a future firmware release. If 4 gigs is to skinny for you I suggest delaying your purchase until they release the 8 gig model. It could be this year from what I've read on their forums. This product deserves a "5" but I handed it a "4" just to leave room for improvement. My buddy, James Bond (MI6)disagreed with me and gave it a "5".