After three unsuccessful attempts, the drive will add delays to subsequent guesses, and after ten wrong attempts, the drive will lock. In order to stop anyone attempting to guess a PIN, the drive comes with brute force protection. There are a number of other features which provide additional security - you can set the drive to automatically lock after 5, 10, or 20 minutes of inactivity, and also create a self destructing PIN that will wipe the drive when entered.

A warning in the documentation explains that you shouldn’t press any buttons when the drive is connected, as doing so could damage the drive and the port as a result of the downward pressure. Once you have an Admin PIN you can add one or more user PINs and optionally create one-time recovery PINs for users.Īs I mentioned previously, unlocking the 3z is just a matter of typing in a PIN, pressing unlock, and then connecting the drive. Admin PINs need to be between 7 and 16 digits in length, and can’t contain all consecutive numbers (so no 1234567) or be all the same numbers (no 1111111).Īssuming the PIN is accepted, you can press the lock button, or just wait for the drive to enter sleep mode. Press the unlock key and the number 9 key, and when the green LED begins blinking, enter your choice of PIN, press unlock, and then enter it a second time and press unlock once more. To create an Admin PIN, press the unlock key, and the green and blue LEDs should glow, indicating no PIN exists. The Aegis Secure Key 3z is FIPS-140 Level 3 certified for security (it uses 256-bit AES XTS encryption) and unlike alternative drives, it doesn’t come with a default PIN, so the first thing you’ll need to do is set one up. Once plugged in, it will function like any other USB drive. Provided the PIN has been recognized, the green LED will flash for the next 30 seconds, giving you time to connect the drive to a USB port. Enter either an Admin or User PIN, and then press the unlock button again.

In order to use it, you just need to wake up the drive by pressing the unlock button. This is a thumbdrive with a built in alphanumeric keypad. If you want to guarantee that your personal data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands in the event of the loss - or theft - of your drive, the best solution is a hardware encrypted memory stick like the new USB 3.1 Aegis Secure Key 3z from Apricorn. Unfortunately, these tiny storage devices are easily lost, and software encryption methods may not be 100 percent reliable. If you have important data that you need to have easy access to at all times, carrying it around on a USB flash drive makes sense.

Aegis secure key 3z