Everyone who has read the The Da Vinci Code or has seen the movie knows what a cryptex
is – an old-timey way to password protect your documents. Except
today’s documents typically come in digital form, say a flash drive,
rather than paper so as cool as a cryptex sounds, it’s no good to use
today.
Enter the Crypteks USB – you can guess what it does just by its name.
It’s not a real product yet, it’s just a concept on Kickstarter. Still,
considering it has received $130,000+ in backing (well over the $12,000
goal), it seems a pretty safe bet that it will be a real product soon.
The Crypteks USB is a cylinder made of high-grade anodized aluminum
alloy measuring 78.7 x 27.9mm. It’s locked by an easily customizable 5
character password – and that’s just to get the USB drive out.
The drive itself features yet more security – 256 bit AES encryption,
which is approved for storing Top Secret level documents. There’s also a
read-only mode to ensure that nothing unwanted gets on the device from
the computer.
The drive is available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities and supports
USB 2.0. For $130 for the 8GB version, I was hoping for USB 3.0. Or at
least some higher capacities. Still, if you pledge $200 you can get the
16GB Black special edition.
