You know the old saying, that appearances can fool you? Well, if you thought the IronKey is just another USB drive, you’d be very wrong. Jump in for the full review.

From IronKey, Inc., founded in 2005, an elite team of experts from big names such as GeoTrust, PayPal, RSA Security and VISA just to name a few, developed an amazing product that enables end-users to protect their privacy and data with something as small and portable as an USB stick.

Tough on the outside, smart on the inside; that would be a sentence to characterize the IronKey perfectly. The sensitive components of the USB stick, the memory and the cryptographic chip, are protected by the metal alloy shell and by epoxy-based filling. This means you can drop the IronKey without worrying about destroying it, and it also means it is water-proof.

The epoxy has another benefit: once it is hardened, it’s nearly impossible to conduct a physical attack on the IronKey in order to retrieve the memory chips. Which, without adequate computing power, would be completely useless since the IronKey can detect a physical attack and initiate a self-destruction sequence that permanently removes the keys from the cryptographic chip. This auto-distruct sequence is also enabled after 10 consecutive failed password attempts. The IronKey has successfully passed 140-2 tests required by the U.S. and Canadian government:

FIPS 140-2 validation is the benchmark for security within government departments and agencies. Government purchasing agents must purchase products validated for FIPS 140-2 in preference to non-validated products. To achieve validation, the IronKey underwent stringent testing by an accredited independent lab, earning the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 certificate number 938 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE). –IronKey Press Release

In addition, IronKey also passed FIPS 186-2 – which ensures an correct implementation of “RSA, AES, SHA-1 and SHA-256 standards for digital signature generation and verification” and FIPS 197 – “certifying IronKey’s correct implementation of the AES algorithm and its various modes”.

All the information on the IronKey is safely stored, encrypted with AES 256 keys generated the first time you plug in the IronKey – not even IronKey’s employees know the keys to your data.

After the initial setup, which comprises of picking a password then waiting for the IronKey to generate the encryption keys and install the software, you’ll be welcomed by a password prompt each time you plug the device on. Various options let you choose what the next automated action will be: open the IronKey control panel, an Explorer window with your files or viewing your online IronKey account.

The IronKey comes with a free service called ‘Secure Sessions’, a secure Password Manager and a hardened version of Firefox.

• The Secure Sessions feature encrypts and routes all your web-surfing through the Tor network – ensuring anonymity online as well as protecting you against local password sniffers.
• The Password Manager remembers password you entered for various websites. This way, there’s no need to worry about keyloggers monitoring your keystrokes – the password is entered automatically for you. It also lets you generate strong passwords that are automatically remembered. This may be helful for those not familiar with GRC’s Perfect Password Generator.
• Currently, the IronKey comes with Firefox 2.0. They are currently working on some compatibility issues with Firefox 3.0. I’m not really sure how their version of Firefox is hardened, but I immediately installed NoScript, AdBlock and CustomizeGoogle. These 3 extensions easily allow you to block ads, flash and scripts from running – 90% of online threats.

If you’re thinking like me, you’re probably worried about the stick getting infected with auto-run type malware after the device is unlocked; fortunately the IronKey team has thought about that and apparently figured out a solution:

The patent-pending USB AutoRun anti-worm malware protection is available immediately on newly purchased IronKey Basic, Personal and Enterprise devices. Existing customers of IronKey Personal and Enterprise devices can remotely update their software and firmware to add this critical new security capability to their devices.

I can’t say that this is 100% effective, but I can say that I used the IronKey on a malware infested computer and nothing caught on when I ran a scan at home.

Like any USB stick, you can install portable applications such as: Chrome, Notepad++, Pidgin (Open-Source Multi-Protocol Instant Messenger Program) and VLC. The nice thing about the IronKey is that you don’t have to dig through the file system to find the launchers – you can easily integrate them into the IronKey Control Panel.

You can also automatically update the firmware for the IronKey, configure proxies and preferences for Firefox. An useful feature, Lost and Found, lets you customize a message that is shown every time the device is plugged in. If someone finds your IronKey, chances are that you’ll get it back, especially since they can’t re-use it.

There’s also an online part to the IronKey experience. Here, you can choose whether or not you want to backup your password in case you forget it, remotely disable lost devices or configure the security warnings. There’s also a feed of recent activity which will let you know if someone accessed your data without your knowledge.

The IronKey proved to be very useful to me. I can now securely check my email from potentially malicious computers, on the go; take with me even my password list or PayPal account information without being afraid that someone will recover that information. While this device certainly is more relevant to the business crowd, there are a lot of uses for the average guy and I strongly recommend this product to anyone who who thinks that security matters in this world. Go to ironkey.com.

IronKey works with Windows, Mac and Linux, altough some features may not be available on the latter platforms. For more information visit the IronKey Library.

We thank Katie Mason from Nadel Phelan, Inc. for providing the IronKey review unit.

I have a Mac laptop and a PC desktop at home. I also use Bootcamp with Windows XP and have several virtual machines (Vista, Ubuntu) installed with VMware and VirtualBox.

I want an easy way of syncing my files from the Mac at home with the PC at work without having to leave the Mac open all day long, like with Windows Live Folder Share.

• When running  Windows in Bootcamp I don’t want to buy MacDrive to access the Mac partition
• When on the Mac I don’t want to buy Paragon NTFS just to work on a few files.
• I want to transfer files between my Mac and desktop PC  and I don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a home network between the two and fiddle with the sharing options – I may forget to unshare folders on my Mac, inviting everybody to steal my files when connected to a hotspot.
• When playing with Virtual Machine software I don’t want to learn how to use VM shared folders. I want an easy way of transferring a bunch of files on all my virtual machines, no matter what VM software I use.

Looks like I need some syncing software: Dropbox and SugarSync.

Interface

DropBox has no interface. After installing DropBox you get a DropBox folder in you Documents folder. It may look like any other folder but it’s actually special. Every file you drop here will be automatically uploaded into the cloud (Amazon S3 to be more specific) and then downloaded to all the computers that you linked to your DropBox account(when they go online, or instantly if they are online). The same happens when modifying or deleting files. A green checkmark will be overlayed on the icons if the files are up to date (on your machine and online) and a blue arrow when files are syncing. Unfortunately there is no indication of transfer progress, speed or ETA. Growl Notifications/Tray Tooltips when syncing is complete is all you get.

SugarSync’s interface is quite pleasant. You use it to set up the folders you want to be synced and backed up online. There is a DropBox equivalent also – the Magic Briefcase. It’s a folder in you Documents that acts exactly like the DropBox folder- all your files you drop there will be synced on all the computers you installed SugarSync on. There is no graphic representation of what is happening to the files like you get in DropBox, but if you return to SugarSync Manager you are able to see details about the transfer: speed and ETA. Too bad you can’t hide SugarSync Mac client from the dock, and access the manager just from the menu bar.

Supported platforms

Dropbox works on Mac, Windows and Linux, while SugarSync works on Mac,Windows and Phones (iPhones,BlackBerrys). So no Linux love from SugarSync.

Usability

When using Dropbox you are actually using just familiar software: Explorer, Finder or Nautilus. There is nothing to configure, just start to drag & drop files in the DropBox folder. You can access functionality like sharing or viewing all the versions of a file by right clicking on the file and choosing the appropriate item in the DropBox submenu.

SugarSync has a nice and intuitive interface (SugarSync Manager) but I’d rather it took a transparent interface approach like DropBox did.

Sync files on multiple machines

DropBox and the MagicBriefcase of SugarSync work flawlessly across platforms with no user intervention.I tested all the scenarios posted in the challenge, and both programs performed marvelously.Both offer automatically resume support so don’t worry if your connection drops or you need to turn off your machine when syncing.

Backup

DropBox is not really suited for backup. You can’t select which folders or files you want to backup online. You only have the DropBox folder where you drop files you need to be synced with other computers. You can use it for backup though: just copy the files in the DropBox folder but now you will have two copies on the machine you want to back-up, and a copy on all your other machines when they sync.A little to redundant for my taste.

SugarSync is a good backup solution. In the SugarSync Manager you can add which folders you want to back-up and sync online. Any changes you make in these folder will instantly reflect online and vice-versa. Only the files in the MagicBriefcase will be synced across all of your computers.

Access your files online

DropBox and SugarSync offer similar web interfaces where you can download or upload files. The days of emailing files to yourself or putting them on flash sticks are over.

As expected, in SugarSync you can choose between the computers you backed-up. The web interface looks a lot like the offline SugarSync Manager.

Share files

In DropBox you have a Public folder. All the files dropped here get a public access link that you can send to your friends by IM or e-mail. To reveal this link just right click the file and choose DropBox->Copy Public link. The link is now in you clipboard, just a few keystrokes away from pasting it in your IM window. For sending large files to your friends it might be easier and safer now to use DropBox than uploading you’re file through a web interface with services like FileDropper, Drop.io or YouSendIt. Just don’t forget to delete a file once everyone got it, because it will be automatically downloaded to your other machines when they get online.

The process of sharing a file in SugarSync is not as smooth. Once you select a file in SugarSync Manager and click the big Send File button on the toolbar, you are taken to the web interface, in a new browser window. Here you need to specify the email addresses where you want the file to be sent. You can import your contacts from you Yahoo/Gmail/Hotmail/AOL account in the SugarSync Adress Book. Unfortunately you can’t get just the link to quickly send it by IM.

Photo Gallery

If you wanted to quickly and painlessly share an image gallery with friends, colleagues or family from a Mac you had three options :  export the gallery from iPhoto to Picasa Web Albums or Flickr (with the help of plugins) or publish it to  your .ME  account. Now there is an even faster way!

In the DropBox folder you have a folder called Photos. When you drop a folder with images in here a web gallery will be automatically created. You follow the same steps as in sharing a file to get the public link to the gallery. The gallery is very basic, with maximum 16 thumnails per page. When you click a photo thumbnail you will be presented with a scaled down to 640 by 480 version.

In SugarSync any synced folder that contains images will automatically have it’s own web photo album. To see this albums click Go to Photo Gallery button which will take you to the web interface.

The photo gallery is more advanced. You can choose between slide show, small/large thumbnail view or mosaic view (when you click a photo in thumbnail view). To share an album you have to to go through the obnoxious process of clicking the Share Album link and then selecting the emails where you want the gallery link to be sent. One thing to notice: after sharing the gallery with someone by email, you can now directly copy and send the gallery’s link in your browser’s address bar to your IM friends.

File Versioning

Both applications are similar to TimeMachine in Leopard. They store previous versions of all your files, so you can easily restore them at a later time.

After initial synchronization, every time you modify a file in DropBox, only the changes will be uploaded in the cloud, not the whole file. In the DropBox submenu click Versions to see all the revisions you made to that file.

SugarSync works in a similar manner, but it only stores the last five versions. Luckily, only the most recent version of each of your files counts towards your storage quota.

File Collaboration

One important feature that SugarSync lacks is collaboration. In DropBox you can create special folders you can share with other DropBox users. Any member of a shared folder can add, edit and delete the contents within and changes will be instantly synced to all members. So if you don’t fancy Google Docs and rather work on your offline document editor together with a colleague now you can!

Size and Price

DropBox offers a free plan with 2 GB storage and  $99 a year or $9.99 a month with 50 GB.

SugarSync has no free plans but at least you can choose a 45 days trial with 10 GB space. There are five paid plans:

Conclusion

There is no clear winner in this fight. They both do the job extremely well. SugarSync may have more features (like iPhone sync) , but the free 2 GB plan, Linux support and the unbelievably ease of use of DropBox, makes it more appealing for many (including me).

And if you wish DropBox had backup features for any folder on your disk, like SugarSync , instead of waiting for the implementation you might want to take a look at Mozy’s free 2 GB plan. But that’s the subject of another article!