Infosec 2010: Kingston ships ultra-secure USB Flash drives

The DataTraveler 5000 features 256-bit AES encryption in hardware

Kingston Digital Europe has introduced a line of ultra-secure USB Flash drives for Windows PCs, certified to the US government's FIPS 140-2 Level 2 security standard.

Available now in capacities from 2GB to 16GB, the DataTraveler 5000 range features 256-bit AES encryption in hardware, and uses XTS cipher mode and elliptic curve cryptography algorithms to meet Suite B standards approved by the US government, according to the firm.

"The DataTraveler 5000 delivers unsurpassed levels of security and encryption to government and enterprise customers," said Kingston Digital Europe's Flash business development manager, Steve Hall.

Each DataTraveler 5000 has a tamper-evident construction, according to the firm, and a power-on self test which verifies that the encryption mechanism is functioning whenever the drive is plugged into a PC's USB port.

The devices are compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Prices start at £71.42 for the 2GB DataTraveler 5000, up to £257.91 for the 16GB model.