Safe as houses
Right now, you might
have a flash drive or SD card on your person with something important
stored on it. And what about your phone – what sensitive data do
you have saved on there? If you're conscious that personal and
important data could be pinched if someone stole or found your drives
or phone, you need better protection for all those 1 and 0s. You need
the iStorage diskAshur 2.
We're no strangers to
the small, portable flash drives from iStorage, having reviewed a few
in the past. Those were all conventional drives, with conventional
drive capacities, but with a teeny number pad into which the owner
has to enter a unique PIN to gain access to the data stored within.
The iStorage diskAshur 2 is basically the same, but physically
larger, and boasting capacities from 500GB up to 2TB. So a proper,
heavy data payload, hard drive.
The iStorage diskAshur
2 is notable for featuring software-less encryption. That means that
the drive doesn't require external software on your laptop to use it
– it is all contained on the drive itself. That means you can use
it on any machine, PC or Mac, and as long as you know the seven to 15
digit PIN, you can gain access.
The drive itself is
pleasingly small and light; not quite as tight around the edges as
the likes of the G-Technology G-Drive Slim, but it does, after all, have a lot more going on
here. The key pad features an anti-wear coating to stop regularly
used buttons wearing down to reveal the numbers of the PIN, and the
body feels robust and sturdy. Oh, and it comes with its own
protective carry case, which both looks cool and helps keep it safe
and out of sight.
It works pretty much
like the small flash drives we've tested previously. Straight out of
the box you are prompted to enter the default factory PIN to activate
it, then set up your own. We went for the very memorable... NOT
TELLING, HA! Once set up, you simply have to tap it in each time you
want access via the built in USB 3.0 cable, and the drive will lock
itself once it is unplugged. Which is nice.
You get five chances to
enter the correct PIN before the drive freezes and requires
unplugging from the USB port. You can then plug it back in and try
again – five more times. Foul all those chances and you'll need to
enter an admin PIN to continue, and finally, if you get that wrong
five times, the drive will erase all the content and reset itself.
Done job. So, cheeky data thieves cant just sirt down and keep trying
combinations of keys to guess the PIN – after a while it will
result in the loss of all that sensitive data.
Interestingly you can
set a self-destruct PIN. Enter that once, and the iStorage diskAshur
2 will automatically erase itself, wiping clean all the contents and
saved details of the original PINs. The point of this is quite
intriguing, and we can only assume iStorage has included it to allow
the owner to quickly erase the drive should they suspect it is about
to be compromised, or as a false PIN to give to someone trying to
force them to reveal the true code. Like we said, interesting. That's
some next level James Bond shit right there.
We received the 1TB version to review, which is more than big enough for what we intend
to use it for: saving video clips and edits for our YouTube channel.
Our needs might not be so important, or private, but if you have a
need to store sensitive, offline data, such as financial records,
personal details, precious photos, or even customer info if you're a
small business owner, the iStorage diskAshur 2 is perfect. Entering
the PIN for access was never a chore, and it recognised our inputs
correctly each and every time.
Although you might
think you don't have data important enough to warrant a drive like
this, with this level of security, you're probably wrong. Data theft
is growing, and so much illegal stuff can be done with just a tiny
amount of your information. Keeping things safe offline, in
physically protected storage, seems like a great idea to us, and the
iStorage diskAshur 2 is a great solution to the problem.
£200
Available from www.amazon.co.uk