32 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
iSTORAGE
datAshurPro2
★★★★★
£330•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
Small files
Large files
Hugefiles
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
CAPACITY256GB•COST PERGIGABYTE£1.29p•
INTERFACEUSB3•CLAIMEDREAD130MB/s•CLAIMED
WRITE116MB/s•WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILS
istorage-uk.com•PART CODEIS-FL-DP2-256-256
SPECIFICATIONS
101MB/s
122MB/s
122MB/s
CONSIDERINGHOWEASYit is to lose a
USB stick, using them to store sensitive
information can be ariskybusiness–just ask
the Heathrow staff member who famously
misplaced adrive allegedly containing the
Queen’s travel and security details in 2017.
Even if you don’t routinely deal with
matters of national security,you can at least
make sure lost or stolen USBs go unread by
using one with built-in, PIN-protected
encryption. iStorage has been abig producer
of such devices, spanning the USB-based
datAshur range as well as the diskAshur
series of external hard disks.
Its newest flash drive,the datAshur Pro2,
cuts an imposing figure.Likethe original
datAshur Pro,its integrated keypad bulks
everything up,but this time the whole drive is
coated in ablack epoxy resin. This both
toughens it up and acts as an anti-tampering
measure,asit’s impossible to remove the
internal storage without visibly damaging the
coating. There’s also ahandymetal sheath
and akeyring loop,for better portability.
CODE CLUB
The idea, in case it’s not obvious, is that you
set aPIN (seven to 15 digits on this model)
and must enter it every time you pop it intoa
USB port; if you don’t, the drive can’t be read,
and any data on it will be scrambled by
256-bit AES-XTS encryption. That’s amilspec
standard that’s very toughtocrack, and
although any common thiefwill likely be
foiled by thePIN protection well before the
type of encryption becomes an issue,it’s a
reassuring degree of protection nonetheless.
In line with previous datAshur and
diskAshur drives, there’s also an impressive
arrayofuser options and backup protections.
VERDICT
This pin-protected drive is smart and fast,
although with such high pricing it’s best as
abusiness expense
ENCRYPTEDUSB DRIVE
Youcan set both an admin PIN and aseparate
user PIN, forexample,aswell as arecovery
PIN that allows you to reset aforgotten code.
There are two levels of bruteforce protection,
too: 10 inaccurateuserPIN entries will force a
reset that can only be performed by entering
the admin code first, and 10 inaccurateadmin
PIN entries will essentially cause aself-
destruct, with all PINs and stored data being
deleted permanently.
We have only two issues with all this, and
one won’t apply as much if you have smaller
fingers: the keypad buttons are very small
and require extremely careful pressing to
avoid accidental inputs. Then again, it’s
better to be slowed down slightly than be
prone to botched inputs, and the buttons
have to be tiny to prevent the whole drive
becoming cumbersomely fat.
More concerning is that there’s no wayto
prevent malicious actors from intentionally
wiping the drive by simply hammering in
enough wrong PINs. Formostusers this will
be ararer occurrence than someone trying to
merely access the data, but it’s worth being
aware that the most drastic anti-bruteforce
measure can cut both ways.
STICK OFFTHE MARK
Performance wise,the datAshur Pro2 has
received amajor writespeed upgrade from
the datAshur Pro: iStorage quotes it maxing
out at 116MB/s, up from 43MB/s. The official
read speed has somehow dropped from
139MB/s to 130MB/s, although that’s still
pretty good foraUSB3-based flash drive.
These numbers largely stood up in our
testing, too. CrystalDiskMark’s sequential
benchmarks produced a127MB/s read speed
and a116MB/s writespeed, although these
dropped to 16MB/s and 11MB/s respectively
in the much more demanding 4K random test.
Still, that’s faster overall than the mechanical
HDD-based diskAshur Pro2 (Shopper355).
It was also nicely fast in our Windows file
transfer tests, albeit mainly by USB stick
standards. The datAshur Pro2 even hit its
advertised maximum read speed in the huge
file test, averaging 130MB/s, and its write
speed of 114MB/swasn’t farbehind. What’s
more,these results barely dropped in the
more challenging large files test, reading at
129MB/s and, again, writing at 114MB/s.
In the small files test, the datAshur Pro2
only fell to a111MB/s read speed and a
91MB/s writespeed. With all three file sizes,
it was consistently faster than the diskAshur
Pro2, which might be great news if you want
the same PIN protection features in amuch
smaller package.
GOING FOR BROKE
Unfortunately,the pricemight also be enough
to put you off.There are eight different
capacity options (ranging from 4GB to
512GB), and every one is scarily expensive; the
256GB model we tested, forinstance,works
out at £1.29 per gigabyte. Only the 512GB
model comes under £1 per gigabyte–85.3p,
to be precise –but that still means you’re
paying £437 forathumb drive; the model
with the lowest outlay, the 4GB version, is a
laughable £14.62 per gigabyte.
The vast majority of PC andlaptop owners
will therefore be better off spending six times
less on astandard, unencrypted USB drive.
Only those who handle genuinely sensitive
files should invest in the datAshur Pro2,
although in fairness, it performs its role well,
however niche and costly it is.
JamesArcher
There’s no waytopreventmalicious actors from wiping the
drivebysimply hammering in enough wrong PINs
