It seems like the benefits are having the device lock/wipe itself after a set amount of attempts in case of a brute force attack and not having to run software to decrypt the drive on the device you plug it into.

I included a picture of the IronKey Keypad 200 but that’s just because it’s the first result that came up when I was looking for an example. There seem to be a few other manufacturers and models out there and they probably have different features.

I am curious what do you think of them? Do you think they are useful? Do you find it more a novelty?

It was an ExplainingComputers video titled Very Useful Small Computing Things that made me think of them.

  • CorrodedOPEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    Yeah. It does add another layer of security but if someone has the resources and motivation to get into an encrypted file or folder I suppose they could probably find a way around the hardware aspect. A bit of a niche use case.

    I’m not sure how difficult it would be to get around the hardware aspect though especially with the higher end versions of these drives.