Corsair Flash Padlock USB Flash Drive Review

Security In The Palm Of Your Hand

Corsair has always been a strong competitor in the memory business. They are known for their high performance products and have a solid reputation in the industry. The recent trend among portable media is the move towards securing data. In the age of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA and others, its possible to be criminally prosecuted for not properly safeguarding confidential information, so companies are taking strong measures to mitigate this. With prices ever dropping, flash drives have become ubiquitous and, like cell phones, most computer users own at least one. With their size, they are easily lost and/or stolen so there is a real possibility for personal data to fall into the wrong hands. Legit Reviews showed you a sneak peak at a padlock prototype back at the Consumer Electronics Show over eight months ago, but now we have the real deal in hand!

There have been a lot of attempts to secure data on portable media with various software methods that may logically lock the drive or encrypt its contents. The problem with this is that it cant be used on other OS platforms and many of them can be circumvented by crafty devils intent on getting your data. Corsair has overcome this by using an external hardware mechanism to lock the drive. Once locked, any computer it is inserted into will not be able to see the drive regardless of the platform. To use the drive, you only need a computer with a USB port (USB 2.0 is recommended) and plug-and-play compatible OS – no other requirements!

Corsair does a fine job of summarizing the device so I’ll quote them here: “Corsairs Flash Padlock gives users the confidence of having a hardware-secured lock to protect their data on an USB drive. Featuring auto-lock hardware security, Flash Padlock is the best way to secure your data while on the go. This prevents any unauthorized access or Brute Force attack to the data on Flash Padlock. Users can program in a PIN, much like they do for an ATM machine, to lock/unlock their data. An easy to use keypad in conjunction with lock/unlock indicator lights makes the Flash Padlock highly intuitive to use. Lastly, the Flash Padlock is fully plug-and-play, and requires no software or drivers to work properly.”

Got all of that? Now to the good stuff…