The history of secure USB drive began not very long ago in 2000. Trek Technology brought out the “ThumbDrive,” and around the same time secure USB drives were introduced by IBM called the “DiskOnKey” with astorage capacity of 8 MB which in comparison to floppy drives of those times was a hefty size.
The design of a secure flash drive consists of NAND gates which are electronic digital switches. Though secure flash drive manufacturers migrated to the modern USB 2.0 technology, the NAND design did not permit speeds higher of 480 megabits per second which USB 2.0 was capable of. This limitation meant that secure USB drives could not operate at speeds of which hard disks are capable. The reading and writing speeds of a secure flash drive vary considerably with the former twice that of the later.
Secure USB Drive Styles
From a simple packaging style, secure USB drive has evolved and has taken various sizes and shapes, though the internal circuitry remains unchanged. USB 2.0 is commonly found in modern devices .However not all USB 2.0 compatible secure USB drives work at the same speed. Dual channel controller is used in many secure USB drives which speeds up the operations. Still, traditional hard disk drives are however much faster than secure USB drives.
While secure USB drives were initially used exclusively to store data, its usage has spread to other areas as well. Many secure USB drives sport an mp3 player and many are used as video playing devices. Data backup still remains an important function of USB drives. Due to its easy portability, secure USB drives are a favorite of marketing professionals for carrying product demonstrations and digital presentations.
Secure USB Drive – The Need for Security
Security has been a major issue with secure USB drives. During the first launch of USB drives there were no security features incorporated in the device. SanDisk is a pioneer in developing highly secure USB drives. Both hardware and software security features are now regularly available.
What started as a simple storage device, a secure USB drive has evolved into a complex device capable of executing various functions. The security features have also undergone a metamorphosis with SanDisk leading the way. State of art secure USB drives are now used even by the military for which SanDisk has specifically designed high security USB drives. The speed of access and usage period has also been enhanced over a period of time. Secure USB drives have become a part and parcel of digital world.