I tested a 4TB quantum-resistant USB drive - but you don't have to spend $3000 for this security

Apricorn Aegis Secure Key 3

pros and cons

Pros

• Quantum-resistant encryption
• Totally level independent
• Very tough, crush-resistant, and IP68 rated

Cons

• Very expensive
• Overkill successful presumption of capableness for astir users.

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Losing a laptop is inconvenient, but usually the worst that happens is immoderate finger-pointing and a spot of awkward explaining. Losing an unencrypted USB thrust containing lawsuit information tin trigger a breach notification nether HIPAA oregon GDPR, adjacent if cipher ever plugs it in.

And that's wherefore I urge hardware-encrypted retention drives. They don't halt you from losing the drive, but they bash marque the information connected it worthless.

Also: Why I inactive urge Synology's DS225+ NAS - adjacent if it can't regenerate your unreality storage

Apricorn is simply a shaper of encrypted retention drives that I've been reviewing -- and utilizing personally -- for years, including the 3NX, the 3Z, and other Aegis keys. Last week, it released a 4TB mentation of its Aegis Secure Key 3, the highest-capacity hardware-encrypted USB thrust of its kind. 

And this isn't immoderate bulky happening that sits connected your desk. No, this is simply a quantum-resistant hardware-encrypted flash thrust that you tin gaffe into your pocket.

What is 'quantum-resistant hardware encryption'?

Modern encryption has moved good up of missive substitution codes. Imagine a operation lock, but alternatively than 3 wheels with 0 to 9 connected them, arsenic you person connected a locker oregon toolshed offering 1,000 possibilities, this has astir the aforesaid fig of possibilities arsenic atoms successful the beingness (a mind-bogglingly monolithic number: a 1 followed by 77 zeros).  

These are not numbers anyone volition beryllium capable to conjecture astatine -- oregon brute-force -- adjacent with a almighty machine astatine their disposal.

Also: I ditched Google Drive for my ain self-hosted retention - and I privation I'd done it sooner

Well, not yet…

The occupation is that computers are getting faster, and quantum computers could boost show to the constituent that thing considered unafraid contiguous could beryllium trivial to ace down the line. So, if you're holding information with a agelong confidentiality support beingness (like wellness records, institution data, oregon the plans for the Death Star), you privation immoderate encrypted information that mightiness person leaked into the chaotic to enactment encrypted for arsenic agelong arsenic possible.

"Quantum-resistant" encryption protects against the menace posed by "harvest now, decrypt later," and that's what the AES-256 XTS encryption utilized by Apricorn provides. 

How Apricorn protects against real-world attacks

But portion we thin to deliberation of breaking encryption arsenic involving big, fancy supercomputers, astir attacks are acold simpler, relying connected things similar default passwords, radical utilizing anemic ones, oregon keypads revealing the PIN due to the fact that the often-used keys amusement signs of wear.

Yes, precocious information tin neglect due to the fact that of thing that simple.

The thrust works perfectly connected USB-C-equipped Macs with a third-party USB-C-to-USB-A adapter.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

Apricorn has this covered. From shipping the thrust with nary default passwords oregon PIN codes, to blocking abbreviated PINs and passcodes, to gathering the keypad from a wear-resistant polymer.

Think you tin interruption unfastened the thrust and get it to spill its secrets? The thrust has been packed afloat of epoxy resin to forestall tampering.

Unlike a batch of encrypted flash drives, this 1 is casual to usage and self-contained. There's nary app oregon executable you person to run. You plug it into a USB port, property a button, participate the passcode, and you're in. And due to the fact that the thrust doesn't trust connected moving an app, it's wholly platform-independent, truthful you tin usage it connected immoderate instrumentality that supports USB storage.

Also: The champion outer hard drives: Expert tested and reviewed

The thrust features anti-brute-force extortion that wipes the thrust if idiosyncratic tries to conjecture the passcode, and a built-in unattended auto-lock that secures the thrust if you locomotion distant oregon go distracted.

For an added level of security, there's besides the quality to acceptable a self-destruct PIN to rapidly hitch the thrust of its contents, yet marque it look similar it is afloat working.

Apricorn says the thrust meets and exceeds FIPS 140-3 Level 3 requirements and has submitted it to NIST for ceremonial validation.

It's besides IP68 rated against particulate and h2o ingress (completely dustproof and protected against prolonged h2o immersion), and built from tough, extruded aluminum, truthful it's drop-resistant and crushproof to 6,500 pounds. 

How it compares to iStorage and Kingston

Apricorn isn't the lone subordinate successful this market, and the Aegis Secure Key 3 has contention from the likes of the iStorage datAshur PRO+C and Kingston IronKey.

And what's absorbing is that erstwhile you comparison these 2 against the Aegis Secure Key 3, they're precise akin -- until you look astatine maximum capacity.

Apricorn's existent differentiator isn't the drive's information -- AES-256 XTS offers the aforesaid quantum absorption crossed each devices -- it's capacity. Nobody other makes a hardware-encrypted USB flash thrust supra 512GB, truthful the 4TB Aegis Secure Key 3 has nary nonstop rival astatine that tier.

Who needs 4TB for pocketable storage?

Not a batch of radical do, and this is precisely wherefore Apricorn makes the Aegis Secure Key 3 successful 9 capacities, going from 16GB to 4TB.

Also: This coin-sized flash thrust doubles my laptop's retention abstraction - and it's cheaper than you think

However, arsenic Apricorn points out, authorities agencies, defence contractors, healthcare providers, fiscal institutions, ineligible professionals, and integer forensic investigators whitethorn find themselves handling delicate information. There are besides each sorts of information that shouldn't question crossed networks and necessitate an air-gapped transportation method.

ZDNET's buying advice

A 4TB flash thrust that uses quantum-resistant cryptography isn't cheap, and the Aegis Secure Key 3 surely isn't inexpensive -- fixed its $3,000 terms tag. But astatine the little extremity of the capableness spectrum, prices commencement astatine $169, making this benignant of encryption wrong scope of most.

On paper, the Aegis Secure Key 3 has rather a just spot of competition, but not erstwhile it comes to capacity. If you privation a hardware-encrypted flash thrust that's bigger than 512GB, you'll beryllium going with Apricorn.