Summary: Some data storage methods may appear to overshadow flash drives as the storage of choice, but with impressive security innovations and technological advances from companies like Kanguru, hardware encrypted flash drives and secure firmware drives still hold a distinguished place among one of the best methods for protecting data.
Kanguru Blog: May 23, 2023
Removable data storage technology has seen some revolutionary changes since the early days of storing electronic digital information, from floppy disks, magnetic tape and zip drives, to compact discs. The USB flash drive is one most familiar to everyone due to its versatility and convenience for storing and transferring files from one machine to another. While other storage methods have come and gone, the flash drive held its own over the years as one of the best methods to quickly transfer data. Until recently, the flash drive saw relatively little change in its physical connectivity to a USB port other than faster data transfer speeds, higher capacities and a few other subtle changes to the USB technology.
When the internet and email moved center stage however in the early 1990s, the standard flash drive began to lose some appeal as the world wide web and email dominated the landscape. Around 2010 cloud data storage and the internet made unprecedented advances toward world-wide data accessibility, making data transfers instantaneous around the globe. The technology was instantly embraced as the new way to store and work with data anywhere in the world and the pendulum swung toward storing data on the internet in the Cloud. At the same time, new research and discoveries along with a few unsettling news stories began raising some concerns with USB technology, making USB flash drives appear dangerous, causing some organizations to abandon or outright ban USB flash drives altogether as a security risk; bad news for substandard USB flash drive makers. The flash drive appeared to be on its way out.
The Need for More Security
At the same time, innovative manufacturers like Kanguru were introducing a compelling, robust security solution using highly secure, hardware encrypted USB flash drives for government, military and defense contracts. Kanguru’s best-in-class security configuration with AES hardware-based encryption, epoxy-encased cryptographic chip implementation, and onboard Anti-Virus on tamper-proof devices led to the development of the Kanguru Defender® hardware encrypted drive. Consecutively, new threats began surfacing about cloud data storage with costly cyberattacks, data breaches, malware attacks, viruses, trojans, worms and spyware. Security-conscious organizations started considering alternatives to the cloud, seeing new value in a more sheltered solution with Kanguru’s state-of-the-art secure flash drives. The pendulum began to swing back to a more localized, endpoint protected, secure data environment with Kanguru.
The Flash Drive Is Reborn – Super-Sized
To some, the days of cheap plastic thumb drives may be over, as drives get tucked away in the back of a kitchen junk drawer containing Aunt May’s chicken soup recipe or a high school term paper, but USB technology has seen quite a metamorphosis to a much grander purpose. Kanguru Defender encrypted flash drives have proven instrumental time and time again for organizations in high-security sectors like government, defense, energy, research and enterprise to move extremely-sensitive information around the world armed with robust data protection - whether on or off-premises. With advanced features like AES 256-Bit hardware encryption XTS Mode, FIPS 140-2 Certification, onboard AntiVirus, brute-force/tamperproof protection, and digitally-signed secure firmware, Kanguru Defender hardware encrypted USB flash drives, hard drives and SSDs are an ideal security alternative over other data storage methods, providing not only convenience and versatility, but much stronger security and control than the internet could ever provide.
In addition, Kanguru’s fully-integrated Remote Management (KRMC) for Defender hardware encrypted USB devices provide an entirely new level of protection for data at rest, data in motion and data in use. Defender drives can be monitored, managed, authorized or unauthorized, disabled and even wiped if there is any danger of sensitive information traveling to an unauthorized location. If a drive is lost or stolen, not only does the FIPS 197 Certified, AES 256-Bit hardware encryption and armored, epoxy-encased cryptographic chip keep the device from being accessed, but the device itself can be disabled or wiped remotely from anywhere in the world by the administrator.
As data storage technology continues to make information more accessible, security laws and governing regulations are clamping down, requiring organizations to comply with rigorous security standards and tighten their grip on sensitive data or face some rather hefty fines. Data must be protected at all times. Kanguru provides a strategic, secure network solution, establishing hardware encrypted drives and remote management as a viable alternative to the cloud for managing and securing data.
Industry giants in Healthcare, Law, Banking, Finance, Enterprise, Energy and Utilities, Research, Manufacturing, Education and Non-Profit have also realized the benefits of secure USB data storage with Kanguru Defender encrypted devices and remote management for their endpoint security environment.
Contending With New Dangers – But Kanguru Has You Covered
USB technology is not without its bad actors however. As with all technology, there are a few malefactors maliciously hijacking USB as a vehicle to cause a major data breach, do a lot of damage or even bring down an entire network as an act of terrorism. But Kanguru has that covered with digitally-signed secure firmware.
In the high-security space, Kanguru Defender drives or the Kanguru FlashTrust can be whitelisted as trusted devices for use in an endpoint environment. Kanguru drives with self-checking secure firmware are digitally-signed, making it virtually impossible for a malicious third-party hacker to corrupt a network with malware using Kanguru brand devices.
Kanguru: A Pioneer In New Secure Data Protection
As data storage technology continues to advance, Kanguru continues to provide the market with outstanding high-tech devices in the industry, including NVMe with incredibly fast read/write speeds, storage devices with a physical write protect switch, generous high-capacity drives, self-encrypting SSDs and TAA Compliant products.
Kanguru has partnered with other innovative leaders to help make cloud storage safer as well. With the new USBtoCloud service, customers can backup their encrypted data to their favorite cloud storage service, in an encrypted file that continues to protect the data. Even if a breach were to occur within the cloud service, files uploaded using USBtoCloud are encrypted with FIPS-compliant AES 256-Bit encryption.
Kanguru continues to offer state-of-the-art data security solutions and services, with Fingerprint Biometric access, USB-C interconnectivity, self-encrypting SSDs, The Defender LifePlanner, and USBtoCloud, as well as duplicators for all types of media.
No, The Flash Drive Is Not Dead
No, the USB flash drive has not reached its demise, at least not anytime in the foreseeable future. Far too many people still like the ease and convenience of being able to plug in a flash drive and pull information quickly from their desktop or laptop with very little effort. Companies in the service industry recognize this by continuing to provide USB ports in hotels, and airports. Also, people do not trust Cloud storage as much as they used to due to its unfortunate vulnerabilities.
Kanguru provides secure, hardware encrypted USB devices for any organization or individual looking to protect data. To learn more about how Kanguru can help your organization protect information, call Kanguru at 1-(508)-376-4245 or feel free to email us at sales@kanguru.com.
For information on any of the products mentioned, feel free to contact us to speak with one of our dedicated sales staff to discuss the best data security and storage options for your organization or click below for more information.
Secure, Hardware Encrypted USB Devices:
- Defender® Hardware Encrypted Flash Drives
- Defender® Hardware Encrypted External Drives (Hard Drives and SSDs)
- Defender® Hardware Encrypted Biometric Fingerprint Access Flash Drive
- Kanguru Defender LifePlanner, Personal Life Organizer and Password Manager
- USBtoCloud Encrypted Back-up to the Cloud for Defender Secure Drives
Remote Management for Hardware Encrypted USB Devices:
- KRMC Cloud™ (for a Single Administrator)
- KRMC Cloud Pro™ (for Multiple Administrators)
- KRMC Enterprise™ (Self-Hosted on Company Server)