14 DAY TRIAL // You've probably been able to read time and time again over the past couple of months about all sorts of security breaches that have affected a tremendously large number of people (state authorities simply losing various storage media filled with the citizens' private data, etc.). These situations are extremely dangerous, since there are quite a lot of "cyber-criminals" out there who have the technical ability (not to mention the desire) to take advantage of the respective data. For this reason, ultra-secure portable data storage solutions should be adopted by all major state authorities and agencies, and this is exactly the type of product we'll extensively talk about as follows, namely Kingston's DataTraveler Vault Privacy USB Flash Drive, a device that protects the user's data via an advanced hardware-based, 256-bit AES encryption system.
First of all, it's worth mentioning that this is no ordinary, consumer-grade product, since Kingston is listing the DataTraveler Vault Privacy in its family of products designed especially to be used by the government or state authorities. For this reason, the drive comes packed with certain features that you won't encounter in just about every flash drive available on the market, including here a very secure password-based access system (which we'll detail later on in the review). However, at least for the time being, we'll just move on to the device's design.
Design
The first thing that draws anyone's attention to the DataTraveler Vault Privacy is its very attractive external design. The case of the drive is manufactured from aluminum and has a very interesting, metallic-blue color, with black plastic elements for a better aesthetic effect. However, the case also has a protective role, because, according to the manufacturers, it really protects the internal memory against shocks or water (yes, it's supposed to be waterproof down to a depth of 1.2 meters).
There are two important elements that I found to be really interesting about the design of the DataTraveler Vault Privacy. One, the cap protecting the USB connector is quite difficult to pull out, which means that it won't let any water come in, should the drive be accidentally dropped in a lake, pond, pool, etc. Then, the two plastic elements that run across the whole length of the drive have more than an aesthetic purpose, because they feature some very small "indentations" which really come in handy when opening the cap by preventing the fingers from slipping.
Last, but not least, the drive from Kingston also sports a blue LED activity indicator, as well as a small hole, used for tying in the supplied lanyard.
Security
As we've mentioned right from the start, the level of security provided by the DataTraveler Vault Privacy USB Flash Drive from Kingston is what really makes it stand out from a crowd. The user's data will be quite secure, as a possible "hacker" would have to go through a 256-bit, hardware-based AES encryption system before being able to access the contents of the drive.
Now, it's quite obvious that the user-interface is a very simple one and gives no hint regarding the complex and complicated encryption processes that are being carried out. Everything is very simple for the user, but extremely complicated for anyone who would make an attempt at cracking the code. However, before we move on to more specific details regarding the installation process and just how the drive works, let's take a short look at what AES encryption really means.
AES Encryption
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael, is a block cipher that has been adopted as an encryption standard by the U.S. government. AES is among the most popular algorithms around the world and can generate either 128, 192 or 256-bit secret keys. The 256-bit keys (which are actually used by the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy) are the ones employed by the US government in order to protect top-secret, classified information. So, if it's good enough for the US government's secret data, it will most likely do its job just fine for any type of information, regardless of how sensitive it might be.
Installing the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy software
After you've taken the drive out of its packaging, removed the cap and inserted it into an available USB connector on your host computer (preferably USB 2.0, but USB 1.1 will also do the job, albeit at lower speeds), you'll have to go through the 4 steps of the installation process. First, you'll have to choose the language, then accept the EULA, then enter the password and finally enter your contact information. It's actually a very simple process that will take less than 2 minutes of your time.
During the installation process, two separate drives will be created on your system. One will be used solely by the Kingston software (for launching the associated application, storing the password data, etc.), while the second will be used for storing the user's data.
It's also important to mention that this initial setup process is carried out almost entirely on the flash drive itself. Practically, none of the data you've entered during the steps mentioned above will be stored on the computer's memory, but only on the drive itself, which gives it an extra level of security.
However, some special attention must be paid to the most important step of the registration process: creating a password. Since this device is designed to provide a very high level of security for your data, it prompts you to enter a special type of password, which should be 6 to 16 characters long and have at least three of the following: upper case letters, lower case letters, digits and special characters. Of course, coming up with a password of this type is no easy task, but, then again, keeping your data safe is worth the effort, isn't it?
Working with the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy
Once you've taken care of the initial setup process, whenever you'll insert the drive into a USB port, the DTVault Privacy software will kick into gear and a window prompting you to enter the password will appear on the screen. What's really interesting here is that the software doesn't allow you to input as many passwords as you wish, and, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, it will block your access to the drive for good. So, be careful to remember exactly the password, or else you might accidentally be locked out of your own data.
However, if the data is not that important or can be recovered by other means, you can always choose to set a new password, an option that will prompt the drive to self-format, thus getting rid of all previous data stored onto it. This security feature assures the fact that nobody but the user will be able to access the information, even if the drive is lost or stolen.
After completing the login process, a small Kingston icon will appear in your computer's taskbar, providing you access to the main functions offered by this application. Thus, the "Privacy Settings" function will allow you to modify the passwords, but it will also display the contact information and language you've entered in the first place.
Next in the list are two pretty much self-explanatory functions, namely "Browse DTVault Privacy" and "Format DTVault Privacy", whose purpose is to either go through the files you've stored in the drive's memory or completely erase the data stored within. Kingston's software also offers access to some support resources ("Online Support"), provides information regarding the drive version and part number ("About") and even offers a function for shutting down the drive ("Shut Down"). Actually, this last feature is quite interesting, since it's the only way one can actually safely remove the drive from the host computing system (any attempts to use the Windows "Safely Remove Hardware" function proved to be pretty pointless).
Performance
Now that we've gone through the security features offered by the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy flash drive, it's about time to take a look at its performance levels, regarding both the storage capacity and the access speeds.
First of all, it's important to mention that Kingston is providing the drive in 1 - 8 GB versions, which is quite enough to cover all the various market segments (entry-level/mid-range/high-end). The version we've had the chance to test has a 2 GB capacity, which must really be taken into account when interpreting the results of the various tests we've carried out.
Much as in the case of the previous Kingston Vienna drive, we've used the SiSoftware Sandra Lite, HD Tune and Crystal DiskMark applications in order to see what's really under the hood of the DataTraveler Vault Privacy. Each of these tests offered various results depending on the size of the transferred files, but there are some common rules, namely that the bigger the file to be transferred is, the higher the transfer speed. However, we'll only provide you here the highest transfer speeds, namely those attained when copying files that are 256 MB or larger, because that's where you really know whether a flash drive is fast or not (smaller files "seem" to be copied equally fast, regardless of the actual speed).
First of all, the read speed was really impressive, varying between 29.87 and 30.2 MB/s, depending on the test (the latter seems to be closer to the accurate value, since two of the three test programs have supplied exactly this number). The write speed, however, wasn't exactly that fantastic, ranging between 12.8 MB/s and 14.69 MB/s (probably closer to the latter, since, once again, two of the applications provided a value closer to this one).
As in the case of the previous Kingston drive, we've also benchmarked the Vault Privacy against some other drives, including here one of its very close relatives, the Secure Privacy. As you can see from the photo, the Vault Privacy was rated better than its sibling and than the Lexar drive, but still had quite a lot of ground to cover before it reached the speeds provided by ATP and OCZ flash drives.
Conclusions
The Good
The best feature provided by the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy is its capacity of providing an ultra-secure portable data storage environment for the very sensitive data. Plus, it's quite easy to use (even with the whole security software) and it offers more than enough storage space and very decent data transfer speeds (with an important plus for the read speed, which is indeed very impressive).
Moreover, the drive has a very attractive external design, which also delivers a very good level of protection for the memory chip stored inside (aluminum casing, waterproof).
The Bad
The write speed could have been a tad higher and the security options a bit more developed. Practically, the device doesn't allow you to create any secure partitions or encrypt individual files, it just lets you set a password for the whole drive (albeit one password that is extremely tough to crack).
Overall impressions
If you happen to be working for a government agency and/or you're dealing with very sensitive information almost on a daily basis, then you should really take a good look at this particular flash drive, especially for the level of security it provides. However, if you're just a normal user, who uses the drive mostly for transferring movies, photos, unimportant documents, etc., then the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy is not necessarily the thing to get, simply because the password thing could prove rather cumbersome at some point, and, after all, this particular drive is more expensive than other comparable products (the 8 GB version, for example, sells for $231 - $255).
Sales package
Within the package of the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy, you'll find the following products:
- Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy USB Flash Drive - Lanyard - User's Manual.
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