INTRODUCTION

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Pretty much the top three things most of us (casual users, enthusiasts and gamers) take into account when out to get a brand new USB flash drive are capacity, price and speed (not necessarily in that order). However there are many people out there such as professionals and enterprise/industrial users who also require the best possible protection for their sensitive data something which normal flash drives can't offer. Because of that there are several manufacturers out there who produce some of the most innovative USB flash drives money can buy featuring not only "top secret" grade AES-256 data encryption algorithms but even secure data destruction if someone tries to hack them (unauthorized access). Kingston has been manufacturing such flash drives for a long time and right now they have a pretty long line for someone to choose from, however today we will be starting off with their entry level model, the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition 8GB.

 

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

 

   Much like most "secure" USB flash drives out there the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition features a hardware encryption chip which is used to keep all your sensitive data locked with a password of your choice which in turn is secured against 3rd party tampering via AES-256 hardware encryption (256bit cipher block chaining mode). Of course depending on the how strong of a data encryption a person requires there are other solutions in the Kingston line with better encryption algorithms such as the military grade XEX tweaked codebook mode with cipher text stealing (XTS), however these are somewhat overkill for small businesses and professionals. The DataTraveler Vault Privacy edition is also compatible with both Windows and Mac systems and is certified under the IEC 60529 IPX8 standard which means it's aluminum casing is water resistant up to slightly over 1m (4ft). The downside however with secure USB flash drives is that because of the on-the-fly hardware encryption they don't feature the same transfer speeds as most mid/high-end units out there so let’s see just how well the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition does in that area.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again we see the usual clamshell clear plastic package from where you can see the front of the drive along with its capacity, main features and 5 year warranty logo.

 

 

The unit’s features are printed at the rear in 11 languages right next to several certification logos and an OS compatibility table.

 

 

As always inside the package you will get the flash drive and a small lanyard.

 

 

 

THE DATATRAVELER VAULT PRIVACY EDITION 8GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DT Vault Privacy line features a slick light blue aluminum housing that measures just 77.9mm in length, 22mm in width and 12mm in height and weighs 16g. At the front as always we see the Kingston logo, drive capacity and the activity LED.

 

 

To see just how large the DT Vault Privacy is i placed right next to some of the other drives we've tested during the past months.

 

 

The model name and serial number are placed at the rear of the drive.

 

 

You can place the protective cap at the rear of the drive when using it to avoid losing it.

 

 

Unlike other USB flash drives manufactured by Kingston the DT Vault Privacy does not have the capacity and serial number engraved on the USB head.

 

 

Now to make things more interesting i decided to also test my all-time favorite IronKey Secure Drive 4GB.

 

 

 

USING THE DATATRAVELER VAULT PRIVACY 8GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moment you plug the drive into your computer a launcher will appear from where you can start the setup procedure.

 

 

The procedure is quite easy and so you just need to enter a password twice (used to access the drive) and a password hint if you want (as a failsafe if you forget the password).

 

 

You can also place contact information prior to finishing the setup (once you take all steps the drive gets formatted with the use of the new password).

 

 

Once the entire procedure is complete you will just have to enter the password each time you plug the drive into a computer.

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Since flash drives are basically plain storage media devices just like solid state drives and hard disk drives we are using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record the achieved performance numbers. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read / Write speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read speeds), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts.

 

   All tests are performed with are main test rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every system update up until November 10th 2012. As always for comparison purposes in the charts you will also find many other flash drives which have been tested using the same exact test bench as the one in this review (we really can't keep every flash drive we get forever and also even if we could testing them all again and again would simply not be possible).

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   USB flash drives designed to offer high levels of data protection always suffer in the performance department and the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition is not an exception to that rule. However as you can see from the charts it did a lot better in read speeds than one of the most expensive and highest quality secure drives of our time, the IronKey Secure Drive (although the second did slightly better in write speeds). Unlike however the IronKey Secure Drive the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition has a much less rugged housing and to some people that just might be reason enough to choose something else. True such USB flash drives are mostly aimed at executives who may never require them to withstand harsh conditions and the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition does have an IEC 60529 IPX8 certified aluminum housing but I’d really like it to be just a tad tougher (Kingston does offer better secure solutions in that area).

 

   As we speak the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition 8GB USB flash drive retails for just USD33.49 inside the USA (Newegg) and at around 40Euros inside the EU. Granted with the same amount of cash you can get an 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive but for a hardware encrypted USB flash drive this price tag is actually very good if you take into account that currently the IronKey Secure Drive 4GB personal edition retails at around USD120/120Euros (it is however a much more complete solution, although slower). Bottom line if you don't require the best possible protection for your sensitive data and you also don't want to spend much in the process then the DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition 8GB could be just the right solution for you and for that it comes highly recommended from us.

 

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance (compared to other similar drives)
- Size
- AES-256 Hardware Encryption
- CBC Mode
- IEC 60529 IPX8 Certified

 

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Overall Performance