I was checking out ThinkGeek today, looking at their vast selection of nerdily fantastic goodies. I love almost everything on that site. Friggin' hilarious all of it!
Then I came across the Ironkey. Are they being serious? They are charging between $80 and $150 (depending on size) for something you can get for under $40!
From Thinkgeek:
"Your passwords are securely stored in a hidden hardware-encrypted area inside the device (and not in the drive's file system), being first locally encrypted with 256-bit AES, using randomly generated keys encrypted with a SHA-256 hash of your device password. All of this data is then doubly encrypted with 128-bit AES hardware encryption. Hack that."
Sounds secure enough, but that isn't the issue here. The issue is the outrageous price!
Check this out... You can get a 4GB Flash drive for $35!
"But El Di Pablo, that one isn't encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption!"
Yes, I realize that, but if you are pulling that argument, you haven't been reading Bauer-Power long enough! You can use Truecrypt to encrypt your shiny new 4GB flash drive for free!
You do the math:
4GB Encrypted flash drive on Thinkgeek: $150
4GB Truecrypt encrypted flash drive: $40
Saving $110 by reading Bauer-Power: Priceless!
[edit] Ironkey sent me a rebuttal here: (Iron Key Rebuttal)