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.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I have a USB drive with a keypad on it, it stores my FIPS Compliant SSH-key for IL-5 government systems. I unlock it to add my key into my ssh-agent, and don’t use it for anything else. Though it is an 8gig USB stick, so I could in theory run some kind of security/pen testing flavor of linux plus a VPN Client to connect to said systems.

    • constantokra@lemmy.one
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      9 months ago

      Is there a specific benefit to that over something like a security key with a keypad, or even just a passphrase?

      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        The government is slow, so using a yubikey isn’t authorized, but the datasur pro is, and the private key does have a passphrase.