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n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro 1 GB


Date
: 08/6/08 – 03:44:25 AM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
n-Trance

USB flash drives have become as common as any bit of technology. Ease of use and portability make them ideal for saving and transporting files and documents. Of course, with this ease of use comes ease of loss as well which is where n-Trance hopes to keep you covered. n-Trance is a company who takes your data security as job number one.

Today I have in my hands the n-Tegrity Pro 1 GB USB thumb drive. Sporting a built in biometric fingerprint scanner with 256-bit AES encryption, this drive brings an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach to data security.

Page 2 : Package

I have gotten used to most USB drives coming packaged in the always difficult to open plastic clamshells, but the n-Tegrity Pro breaks from the norm with a cardboard package.

First I want to thank n-Trance for using this packaging that is much easier on your hands when opening and easier on the environment as well. The front of the package has a picture of the USB drive along with some key features of the drive. The background of the package is a magnified fingerprint design that reiterates one of the key functions of the drive.

The back once again sports a picture of the drive below the n-Trance logo on the right. On the left side is a box with some more detailed features and software applications included on the n-Tegrity Pro. There are also the system requirements and a warranty statement.

The package opens up to reveal the n-Tegrity Pro inside a cutout next to a quick hit of instructions on using the fingerprint scanner. Along the top is a quick start guide and pictures of each of n-Trance's USB products.

Page 3 : Specifications

Specifications for the n-Tegrity Pro were grabbed straight from n-Trance's product page for the n-Tegrity Pro here.

Features:

* Fingerprint-protected 256MB to 4GB flash drive
* Carries n-Pass Pro as the main application and device managing control
* One-click VPN and RDC connection
* Pre-installed applications including e-mail client, messengers, Skype,
* User convenient Tray Menu
* Autorun-enabled feature for customers applications
* User can add applications

Applications:

* n-Pass Pro including first in the industry biometrically enabled VPN and RDC connection
* n-Crypt – fast and convenient shell-integrated biometrically-enabled cryptographic application allowing:

– Encryption of files and folders
– Encrypted Virtual Disks (EVD)
– Selectable cryptographic algorithms from the list of 7 most powerful
– RSA-2048 key pair
– AES-256 (Rijndael) encryption of all data (default)*
– FIPS 140-2 Level 1 compliant RNG

* Pre-installed applications:

– Portable Thunderbird
– Miranda
– Skype

* Additional 3rd party applications can be launched from the flash disk. A list of compliant applications is available HERE.

Advantages:

* Securely stored personal information and passwords
* Fingerprint protected secured area for storage of private files
* User friendly Tray Menu
* One-click VPN and RDC connection
* Easy and convenient access control through domain Group Policy
* Reduces expenses for technical support like ‘forgotten password’ reset
* No threat of unauthorized access to private data
* No threat of virus ‘infection’ of n-Pass Pro application and authentication software
* Any direction fingerprint scanning
* Small form factor
* High reliability
* User friendly
* Robust
* No psychological resistance
* Vandalism protected
* No Hygiene problem

* AES provides strong encryption and has been selected by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard in November 2001 (FIPS-197), and in June 2003 the U.S. Government (NSA) announced that AES is secure enough to protect classified information up to the TOP SECRET level.
Other cyphers available as user option (Blowfish, 3DES, GOST, Twofish, CAST and Serpent)

* In IDENTIFICATION mode security level 3
** Pentium-III 1.2GHz

Page 4 : Drive and Accessories

Now it's time to explore the drive itself.

The n-Tegrity Pro is made of a hard plastic white shell with a sliding softer blue plastic cover. While closed the blue piece covers the fingerprint scanner and conceals the USB connector. There is a green LED for drive activity just in front of the fingerprint scanner.

Nothing really remarkable on the bottom aside from the ring to attach the lanyard.

Accessories include a USB extension cord, quick start guide and white lanyard with a quick release clip.

Page 5 : Installation and Setup

Installation amounts to plugging the drive into an available USB port.

Once installed the drive's blue LED flashes letting you know it is active. With its relatively compact size, crowding of USB ports to the top and bottom shouldn't be an issue. However, the drive is a bit wide and will cause issues with USB ports that are directly beside it.

After you plug it in, you have to setup your security information to access the encrypted portion of the drive.

The setup process begins by generating a unique key moving the mouse cursor across one of several pictures. As you continue to move the cursor back and forth the status bar fills to the right.

The next step is registering your fingerprints. You can register them all if you like or just one. This step actually became quite frustrating at times as some fingers just wouldn't register and would sort of hang the application and I would have to start the print registration over again.

Next, you setup a password that can be used as an alternate to unlocking the device. As the instructions say, you can later disable or change the password from within the Security Settings tab.

The final step to the initial setup is entering in your personal information.

Once the device is inserted into a USB port after setup, you will get the authentication window. After scanning a correctly registered finger, the center window turns green with your fingerprint and launches the n-Pass application to your taskbar. You can also change settings to allow password entry or not, or to require both password and fingerprint for authentication.

n-Pass allows you to store contact information, usernames and passwords along with VPN and RDC information that are all encrypted on the drive.

Right clicking on n-Pass from the task bar allows you to launch any portable applications installed along with enabling features for autofilling passwords and usernames. This is also where you can set up the n-Crypt EVD (encrypted virtual drive).

One last feature I want to touch on is n-Surf, n-Trance's secured web login. Essentially what this technology does is uses the authentication from the n-Pass Pro software to login to secure websites. An advantage of this is you would no longer have to remember any passwords or usernames as it would use your fingerprint to authenticate your identification. While it worked flawlessly in Internet Explorer, I could not get it working in Firefox 3.

So now that we have taken a tour of the various features and applications, let's move on to some benchmarking to see how the n-Tegrity Pro fares.

Page 6 : Testing

The following system was used for testing:

CPU: Intel E4300 @ 2.9GHz
MB: Gigabyte P35-DS3R
RAM: G.Skill 2x2GB PC6400
Video: XFX Geforce 8800GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: WD 250GB SATA
DVD-ROM: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
Case: Tagan Black Pearl WCR
OS: Microsoft Windows XP w/ SP2

Comparison USB drives:

n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro 1 GB

Kingston DataTraveler Secure 2 GB
Kingston DataTraveler Secure Privacy Edition 2 GB

For testing I used the following programs to gather data:
-Sisoft Sandra Lite XII.SP2c File System benchmark
-Simpli Software HD Tach 3.0.4.0
-NodeSoft Diskbench

All programs were run three times and the average of those scores is used.

Right out of the gate the n-Tegrity Pro falls behind. There is quite a considerable gap in performance and the drive also took close to 45 minutes to complete the benchmark.

Not too much has changed in the numbers in comparison to the Kingston drives. The n-Tegrity Pro just can't keep up with the speedier Kingston Secure drives. The n-Tegrity utilizes the CPU less, though that is understandable with the much lower performance numbers.

For the DiskBench test I used a 516,000 kb file and ran the Copy File test to see what we might see in a typical real world setting. Unfortunately DiskBench pretty much confirms once again the results of the earlier tests. The n-Tegrity Pro really lags behind the other drives.

Page 7 : Conclusion

While the benchmark numbers leave a lot to be desired, that really isn't the focus point of the n-Tegrity Pro, as security takes a front seat for this drive. With data security the n-Tegrity Pro has a very robust assortment of encryption options that satisfies even government security protocols and with a slew of options you can tailor it to fit what method you prefer. The built in n-Pass software allows you to store passwords, web forms and e-mail in an encrypted environment so you no longer have to remember that slew of usernames and passwords.

So in the end, while the 1 GB model would be ideal to just use as an encrypted storage point for passwords and e-mail, a larger capacity drive would be at a disadvantage if they have the same performance as the Pro 1 GB. I certainly would lose patience moving a file larger than 1 GB.

Positives

• 256-bit AES encryption

• Biometric fingerprint scanner
• Lanyard and USB extension included

Negatives

• Slow compared to regular USB drives

• Fingerprint scanner can be quirky

Overclockers Online would like to thank n-Trance for supplying the n-Tegrity Pro 1 GB for review.