INTRODUCTION

   Regardless of whether or not you're a professional or a "regular" consumer an external encrypted drive could always come in handy. Professionals choose them to protect their sensitive data from industrial espionage and 3rd parties in general whereas regular consumers prefer them to store personal data (like family pictures and videos) which they don't want other people to have access to. Just like everything else in this market however choosing the right model might be tricky, especially since currently the market is filled with many different types of external encrypted drives. The most popular (not to mention lowest cost) ones are without doubt software encrypted ones which aren't really special and in the best possible scenario only make use of semi-hardware encryption. Hardware encrypted external drives may not be quite as popular (especially among regular consumers, primarily due to cost) as software encrypted drives but they offer full hardware encryption paired with numerous fail safes to further protect your data from unauthorized access. One such drive is the brand new diskAshur M2 by iStorage which I've been testing for almost 2 months now.

   iStorage is the trusted global leader of award-winning, PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted portable data storage & cloud encryption devices. iStorage offers the most innovative range of products to securely encrypt, store and protect data to military standards; safeguarding valuable and sensitive data to ensure compliance with stringent regulations and directives such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, NRC, GLB and DHS Initiatives. Founded in London, England in 2009 by John Michael, a serial entrepreneur, with 32 years’ experience within the IT Industry, iStorage has fast become recognised as a leading innovator and supplier of ultra-secure, easy to use and affordable portable data storage devices.

   The compact diskAshur M2 by iStorage might be the very first SATA III/600 M.2 based drive in their product lines but exactly like their previous portable SSD models we're still talking about a PIN authenticated (platform/device independent with 7-15 digit codes) USB 3.2 portable drive (currently available in 120GB/240GB/500GB/1TB/2TB capacities) that features numerous tamper-proof protections (protected against brute attacks, external tamper, bypass laser attacks and fault injections), real-time military grade FIPS PUB 197 validated AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption (FIPS 140-3 Level 3) and an built-in dedicated hardware based secure microprocessor (Common Criteria EAL5+ / FIPS and common criteria wrapping algorithms). Aside also featuring an IP68 certified rugged enclosure (waterproof up to 1.5 meter, rugged, shock and crush proof) the diskAshur M2 also comes ready with a polymer coated water resistant keypad (makes it virtually impossible for people to tell which have been used) and a super tough epoxy resin layer applied onto the interior hardware components (virtually impossible to remove without causing severe damage). So, let's see what the most compact portable SSD by iStorage to date is capable of.