Agesis Padlock 750Gb Encrypted HardDriveIf you’re serious about backup, and in this day and age with the increasing storage needs of businesses & consumers alike, then you probably should be. 

We have a look at Apricorn’s latest Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive today.

Read on for more info.

Have you considered how secure your backups are?
 
Any IT professional will tell you backing up on-site is as-good-as not having a backup at all because if you have a fire, you can say good bye to your servers and your backup devices. So the simple solution is to get a portable drive and take your backups home, off-site so in the worst-case-scenario you’ve still got a copy of your data.
 
That’s a great solution, but how secure is your data? if you’ve got your entire business sitting on a portable hard drive, often left on the front seat of your car, it makes it that much easier for anyone to get a hold of that data. Password protecting a zip file is NOT a secure method, and this is where Apricorn’s latest Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive comes into play.
 
The latest Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive features Military Grade FIPS PUB 197 Validated Encryption, in both your choice of AES-128bit and now also in AES-256bit, not only is this done in real time, it’s also software independent, meaning you can use this device anywhere you would normally be able to plug a USB hard drive in.
 
The Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive also features a few other very important things, such as:
 
  • Brute Force Self Destruct – If the PIN is incorrectly entered over several times in a row, the device will then lock, requiring it to be re-plugged in before being able to enter another PIN, if then after a predetermined amount of retries of the PIN it will then set the drive into Self Destruct mode, i know what you’re thinking, but no it won’t blow up! (The health and safety red tape killed that idea!) But it will do the next best thing in protecting your data, by destroying the encryption key and locking the drive, rendering your data completely useless to anyone who got their hands on the drive (besides you!), luckily if you did manage to get the drive back after all that, you can still use it, it just needs to go through a full reset.
  • VTC Technology – This protects the drive against hackers attempting to use timing attacks against the encryption.
  • Wear Resistant Key Pad – This prevents the keypad from wearing on the keys you use all the time to unlock the drive, thus stopping any "lucky guesses"/
  • Data At Rest Protection – All Data, PIN’s & Encryption Keys are always encrypted whilst the drive is not in use.
  • Rugged Design – Featuring an internal 16-point rubber shock mounting system for the hard drive, it means your data is not only protected from hackers, thieves & prying eyes, but also from day to day carting it back and forth to and from work.
  • Integrated USB Cable – Never forget the darn USB cable again! it’s built right into the side of the device!
 
So what do you get in this bit of kit?
 
Well included inside the very well padded box, you get:
 
  • Quick Start Guide – Shows you exactly how to set your own PIN for the device, as well as how to use it on day-to-day basis.
  • Apricorn Product Catalogue – A little booklet showing off some of Apricorn’s other cool bits & pieces.
  • USB Y-Cable – For extending the built in cable, and also providing a dual USB connector for computers who don’t quiet put out the full USB 5v on each port.
  • Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive – 750GB 2.5" Form Factor HDD
 
What’s it like to use?
 
Well in my experience, once you’ve learned how to enter your PIN & Unlock the device it’s seamless, it is exactly the same as any other USB portable drive to use in the way that once it’s unlocked, it shows up as a normal external hard drive, it’s that simple!. It comes pre-formatted in NTFS, so if your’re running Windows it will work straight out of the box, but, if your like me and run OSX you have 2 choices, you can either download the NTFS-3G driver or, you can re-format the drive in Disk Utility (it shows up just like any other USB hard drive).
 
And that’s one of the awesome features with this device, it makes something that sounds hard to do (highly secure encrypted backups), such a simple task to carry out, and gives you the piece of mind that even if you did happen to have the drive get stolen, or you loose it somehow, that no one else is going to be able to use, or see any of your data, and that is brilliant.
 
So how much will it cost me, and where do i get it?
 
The reviewed unit is currently at a retail price of $199.00, which considering the security is a very very good price point, and you can purchase it directly from Apricorn by visiting the product page located here.
 
As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, so i’ll leave you with some pictures of this funky little device!
 
 
 
Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive - USB Connecter Un-Docked
 
Aegis Padlock 750GB Encrypted Portable Drive - Back
 
Special thanks go to Michelle @ Apricorn for providing us with the unit to review.