Victorinox, the firm behind the legendary Swiss Army Knife, has introduced the Victorinox Secure Pro. The Secure Pro has a USB memory stick integrated into it along with the expected knives and screwdrivers. The firm claims it the most secure USB stick of its kind available to the public. The Secure Pro uses several layers of security to protect the data on it from being stolen.
The security layers included in the Swiss Army Knife include a fingerprint scanner linked to a heat and oxygen sensor. The sensor is capable of determining whether the user’s finger is still attached to a living person – so that a detached finger will not yield access to the memory stick’s contents. Any attempt to forcibly open the Victorinox Secure triggers a self-destruct mechanism that destroys the CPU and memory chip.
The Victorinox Secure Pro uses AES256 technology, together with MKI’s Schnuffi Platform Single Chip Technology. Martin Kuster, CEO of security chip specialist MKI, told InfoWorld, “I’m concerned about the way technology is progressing, with all our personal data going into “the cloud.” Soon everything will go into the cloud – and I don’t like it! Perhaps one day I will have to buy back all this information from eBay!” The security integrates Single Chip Technology, meaning that there are no external and accessible lines between the different coding/security steps, as on multi-chip solutions; this makes cracking the hardware impossible.
Victorinox was so confident of Swiss Army Knife security that it offered a $150,000 prize to a team of professional hackers if they could break into it during the two hours product launch event. The money went uncollected. Victorinox Secure’s designer Kuster, stated, “Life is becoming more digital every day… And yet people do so little to protect their data. The world’s most common password is ‘12345’ – and even encryption can be broken given time.”
“We wanted to create not only a product for today’s modern lifestyle but a new generation of memory stick that had all the values of functionality and reliability that the iconic Swiss Army Knife has come to represent” stated Carl Elsener Jr., Victorinox’s CEO. “We think of the Victorinox Secure as the digital Swiss Army Knife.”
The Secure Pro Swiss Army Knife was launched 03-25-10 in London and is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes and will sell for $75 to $270. Additional features include:
- LED Mini White Light
- Retractable Ball Point Pen
- Blade
- Scissors
- Nail File with
- Screwdriver
- Keyring
David Reinsel, group vice president of storage and semiconductor research at IDC was on-point when he stated, “It’s a cool product that will capture attention … adoption en-masse by corporations is quite another thing.” Reinsel told Newsfactor.com that there’s no doubt that data breaches are expensive for businesses in many ways. However, so is data on a computer that sits behind an encryption key that only the employee knows, he said. “Hence the age-old issue — corporations (most of them) want to control the encryption methodology and the keys,” Reinsel said. “Any corporate solution would have to allow for some type of master-key so that the company can get at a rogue employee’s data.”
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Mr. Reinsel is on-point, this Swiss Army Knife, no matter the cool factor is a threat to the enterprise’s data. The size of the device can swallow a whole database and once it is encrypted with an individual’s key, it is pretty much gone. There is also the risk that some overambitious TSA agent will “confiscate” it if the user forgets to put the knife part of the device in checked baggage.
Despite all of that the cool factor is high and I want one.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
