Kanguru Releases Kanguru FlashTrust™: The World’s First Unencrypted USB 3.0 Flash Drive with Secure Firmware

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Summary:

Kanguru, a global leader in secure USB data storage solutions, has released the world’s first unencrypted, USB 3.0 flash drive with onboard, secure firmware to protect against the potential risk of malicious attacks like "BadUSB". The digitally-signed, trusted firmware offers consumers and organizations the same level of secure firmware protection typically reserved for encrypted, high-end flash drives to unencrypted USB device users.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 - Kanguru, a global leader in secure USB data storage solutions, has released the world’s first unencrypted, USB 3.0 flash drive with onboard, trusted firmware to prevent malicious firmware-based attacks. The Kanguru FlashTrust™ with its RSA-2048 bit digitally secured firmware, joins Kanguru’s trusted line of USB flash drives offering solid assurance to customers ranging from end users to enterprise organizations that it is impervious to “BadUSB”.

The Kanguru FlashTrust is a SuperSpeed USB 3.0, unencrypted flash drive, designed for use by any customer or organization that, while still concerned about security and physical quality, may not require the specific usage scenarios or additional costs of hardware encrypted solutions.

““Our Kanguru Defender series of secure, hardware encrypted USB drives is immune to a potential attack like “BadUSB” because of the digitally signed secure firmware,” says Kanguru’s Executive Vice President, Nate Cote. “With the release of the new Kanguru FlashTrust, we now offer this same level of firmware protection to the multi-billion dollar market segment of unencrypted USB device users. Along with the physical write protect switch, rugged aluminum housing, and the fact that assembly and device scrubbing is done in the US, the Kanguru FlashTrust is a unique product delivering substantial value and security to our customers…" 

In August of 2014, security researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell revealed a potential threat to USB technology known as “BadUSB” at a Black Hat event, arguing that any USB device including a webcam, a computer mouse, a keyboard or an untrusted flash drive could potentially be tampered and manipulated by a savvy hacker to deliver harmful malware to a computer network. Although it would be a very difficult thing to do, many organizations might choose to be proactive in implementing solutions that may help alleviate this possibility. The new Kanguru FlashTrust Secure Firmware device is designed to do just that.

The Kanguru FlashTrust is designed in compliance with NIST requirements for implementation of a digitally signed device firmware. Any attempt at changing the customized, onboard device firmware with an unauthorized, malicious version is impossible. Furthermore, there are self-tests run at startup of the cryptographic module which handles the firmware security within the USB drive itself that ensure the integrity of the original firmware. If the self-test fails, the device will not operate.

With its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the Kanguru FlashTrust is great for quick, easy transfers of data. It can deliver read speeds of up to 230MB, and up to 85MB for write speed depending on capacity. It also comes with a very handy physical write protect switch that can toggle easily between “Read Only” or “Read/Write” mode if so desired. This is quite useful if the device might be used on an untrusted machine which could potentially be infected with a virus. The FlashTrust is available in generous storage capacities of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and starts at $29.95 for the 8GB drive.

 See Kanguru FlashTrust or Kanguru’s secure hardware encrypted USB drives at www.kanguru.com to learn more.

Kanguru is a global leader in providing secure, hardware encrypted USB portable storage solutions, providing enterprises, organizations and consumers with the best in easy-to-use, secure IT products and data storage. For more information on Kanguru, please visit www.kanguru.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Marketing Manager
Kanguru Solutions
marketing@kanguru.com
508.376.4245