So I’m looking at this cool new encrypted USB drive and the specs are impressive – hardware-based AES-256 encryption, small form factor, large capacity, even a hardware read-only switch, and…from what I read thus far, no Windows/other drivers necessary to operate. Pretty cool. Something I’d be happy to use and know that everything on it is pretty safe from whoever might want to tamper with it.

And then I look at the features, and read… “can also be remotely managed, enabling business owners or administrators to wipe or delete drives remotely in the event it is lost or stolen.”

Ok. Now I don’t think I’m the only one that sees this as a big turn-off. Yes, all the rage these days is being able to “remotely manage” your devices “in the cloud” (visualize Dr. Evil’s finger bunny ears, please). Please correct me if I seem off-base, but being able to remotely access these seemingly secure, encrypted, sensitive-data-carrying storage devices seems like a fundamental security no-no. Especially if you’re entrusting the remote-access, “cloud based” function to a third party. It’s a PORTABLE USB DRIVE. Shouldn’t you not have to worry about remotely wiping the thing, if the encryption works? Isn’t that the whole point? Why add these useless features? WHY AM I GETTING SO MAD ABOUT THIS SHIT? Haha… man. I could go on and on, but I’ll just leave this at, “You *almost* won me as a customer.

Categorised as: Blogs | Technical