The diskAshur M² from iStorage

https://istorage-uk.com/product/diskashur-m2/

£129-£429

When it comes to keeping data safe, it’s important to have a device that’s thought of everything. With more people working from home these days, professional levels of data protection are more important than ever before, both to be compliant with regulations, to protect against data breaches or leaks and to ensure customer confidence. The diskAshur M² from iStorage certainly comes with plenty of bells and whistles, but what are they and how do they protect your data?

The diskAshur M² is a PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted SSD available in 120GB, 240GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. Your data is guarded by a 7 – 15 digit PIN, and when the drive is disconnected, all data on it is encrypted using AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption. You don’t need any software to support this, which is awesome. In case the user forgets the PIN, it can be reset using an Admin PIN. This protects against human error and makes the drive suitable for company use. However, make sure to keep track of who knows these two PINs. The Admin also has the power to set the complexity requirements of the User’s PIN, and to set the drive to being a Read Only device. Rather satisfyingly, the device can even be programmed with a PIN code that triggers a self-destruct, completely wiping all data. Unfortunately, this can’t be done remotely, but then, that also removes the risk of this feature being hacked.

Two of iStorage’s main points of focus in creating the diskAshur M² were to make it sleek and portable, and also to make it hardy and resilient against damage. This all makes it convenient and safe to carry around with you (as well as protected from physical sabotage). Smaller than a phone and only 86g at its heaviest (with the outer sleeve fitted), this SSD is easy to carry around and doesn’t draw attention to itself by creating a bulk in your bag. As for wear and tear, this thing is basically crushproof, about to withstand 2.7 tons of weight – aka, it can survive being driven over by a hefty vehicle! It can also survive a 4m drop onto concrete, being submerged for half an hour in 1.5m of water and won’t be affected by dust, dirt or sand. On top of all this, the interior elements of the diskAshur M² are all covered in a layer of super tough epoxy resin, which makes it extremely difficult to take the drive apart without permanently damaging it and making it unusable. Basically, it would be VERY hard to damage this thing be accident, and even on purpose. In fact, it is FIPS 140-3 Level 3 compliant and tamper proof, and is Level 3 tamper evident, which means it is designed to show if anyone has been messing with it.

A detail I really liked about the M²’s hardiness is the wear-resistant polymer coating over its keys. This coating stops the more frequently pressed keys from fading, which means hackers won’t have any visual clues as to which buttons you use for your PIN. This level of paranoid detail is exactly what I’m looking for in a product like this, and it continues throughout its design. It has dedicated hardware for protection against SPA/DPA/SEMA, DEMA attacks, an Environmental Protection Systems to protect against the use of voltage, frequencies, temperature and light, and advanced protection against physical attacks such as Active Shield, Enhance Protection Object, CStack checker, Slope Detector and Parity Errors.

As for its functionality as a drive, it’s impressively speedy. It has backwards compatible USB 3.2 Gen 1 data transfer speeds, which means that both its read and write speeds are up to 370MBs. It is compatible with MS Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Chrome, Thin Clients, Zero Clients, Embedded Systems, Citrix and VMware – so, everything, basically, and doesn’t need any software to boot it up. All in all, this SSD has all of your security concerns covered, and left us extremely impressed.

5/5

Pros:
PIN protected
Extremely hard to break
Weight, water and grit resistant
Tamper proof
Encrypted data
Auto-locks
Self destruct
Fast read and write speeds