By means of GitHub and Crowd Present, Ryan Walker of Interrupt Labs (by means of CNX Software program program) is releasing a security-focused, open-source USB flash drive known as Ovrdrive USB, which boasts a self-destruct mechanism that heats the flash chip to over 100 ranges Celsius.
The Ovrdrive USB is unencrypted by default, so it should nonetheless be approved in nations the place encryption is in some other case illegal whereas providing an extra diploma of (bodily) security not matched by our current best flash drives.
First, the Ovrdrive USB design capabilities pretty merely. It’s principally a run-of-the-mill USB flash drive with a singular activation mechanism. For it to be detected by your machine, you could shortly insert the drive three consecutive situations actually to indicate it on. Failure to take motion will cowl the drive’s partition and gives the impression that it’s broken. Initially, it was presupposed to self-destruct, nonetheless it proved too troublesome to mass produce, forcing Walker to differ the drive.
Nonetheless, Walker left the distinctive destruction mechanism intact inside the final product. The mechanism reverses the voltage supplied to the system to spherical 100 ranges Celsius. Nonetheless, it’s most likely not scorching enough to kill the flash chips, nevertheless prospects can on a regular basis add a compound for it to self-destruct. Clearly, the creator shouldn’t be going to ship any hazardous compound with the Ovrdrive USB.
The first revision of the Ovrdrive USB featured a peculiar activation method the place prospects used moist fingers to activate the pen drive, which meant licking their fingers sooner than plugging inside the pen drive.
As a product aimed towards journalists, researchers, and others needing an extra storage security layer, the Ovrdrive USB design is also a wide selection. This activation mechanism is not any substitute for full encryption (notably in nations the place you probably can encrypt your storage). Nonetheless, it nonetheless serves as an exquisite security info take a look at for undesirable third-party drive prospects.
Fortunately, encrypting a USB drive your self shouldn’t be very onerous— specific variations of Residence home windows have the built-in BitLocker drive encryption attribute, and VeraCrypt will also be accessible as an open-source, extraordinarily helpful numerous. VeraCrypt is normally helpful over BitLocker, notably in case your system has a TPM module exterior to your CPU (see our itemizing of best gaming CPUs).
In its crowdfunding advertising marketing campaign on Crowd Present, the flash drive is slated for an August 2024 launch and priced at $69 with free US house transport or $12 worldwide transport for the rest of the world. On the genuine time of writing, the flash drive has reached 70% of its funding, with two days remaining on the funding deadline.