Aegis Padlock Portable Hard Disk Is Perfect For Paranoid Types

The Aegis Padlock Secure Drive has its own keypad and admin feature to lock your data down. It also has 128-bit realtime or 256-bit AES hardware encryption, shock mounting, and come in sizes up to 500GB. More »

Hacker Claims iPhone 3GS Encryption is Incredibly, Dangerously Easy to Crack

Noted iPhone security destroyer Jonathan Zdziarski has cracked the iPhone 3GS encryption security, which is to be expected, but the ease and speed with which he did it is worrisome. Zdziarski claims the iPhone 3GS is thus "useless" to businesses. More »

Quantum Encryption Network Goes Live, Claims To Be Unbreakable

Scientists have connected up the world's first computer network protected by “quantum cryptography,” a supposedly unbreakable system that functions off a scheme based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. For us non-science folk, that means that you can't grab information transmitted through the network without disturbing it somehow, making it easy to detect when somebody's trying to listen in on exchanges. More »

3M Mobile ID Reader Helps Big Brother Take Your Identity More Efficiently

3M's new Mobile ID Reader scans MRZ and RF chip data from passports and visas and immediately checks them against local or international watch lists by using wifi or GSM/GPRS EDGE networks. It seems like a great tool to further make you feel like you're living in some scary dystopian sci-fi novel, especially when you hear that dastardly monopolist Bill Gates got his little-loved Windows Mobile 6 OS onto the device. More »

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000B is Power Efficient 1TB Drive, Has Encryption Too

About a year ago we brought you the first retail terabyte HDD, the Deskstar 7K1000, and now Hitachi has released the Deskstar 7K1000.B. And Hitachi's worked quite hard on it: With a 32MB buffer and a three-disk layout, it's apparently the "world's most power-efficient 1TB drive" and consumes about 43% less power when idling. And for those of you who think "bleh" to the power savings, it also has built-in encryption, which Hitachi says doesn't impact on read/write speeds at all. Out soon for $279, which puts it in competition with the Samsung HD103UJ. Available July for $279. [Hitachi and BoingBoing Gadgets]

Data Encryption Easily Broken Using Keys Hiding In RAM

Scientists at Princeton have discovered a way to grab otherwise-protected data encryption keys from memory on a computer that's just been powered down. This is pretty scary stuff, since the keys—which are well protected when the computer is on—are the one thing that keeps super-tight encryption from cracking. More »

Secure IronKey Flash Drive Will Self-Destruct in 3...2...1...

Designed to be the world's most secure flash drive, the IronKey employs military-grade AES hardware-based encryption using its IronKey Cryptochip. The encryption keys are stored on the drive itself and your password is required in conjunction with the keys to access and decrypt files. If you forget your password, you may be in trouble; after ten consecutive failed password attempts, the IronKey self-destructs (internally) and erases everything on the drive using "flash-trash" technology that physically overwrites every byte, making the data completely unrecoverable. More »

XCDs: the New Enemy?

The sneaky folks at Aladdin have filed a patent for a new form of media that marries optical discs with smart cards. The new discs, dubbed XCDs, will look and play like any old DVD/CD, except their outer edge will be cut away and capable of plugging into a USB socket. Aladdin figures they can use this to lock copyrighted content on optical discs so music/video can be stored on the disc while encryption keys will be housed in the embedded chip. How long before this will be hacked? – Louis Ramirez More »

Kouwell KW-7292 Fingerprint Disk

Getting paranoid these days? Taiwan's Kouwell offers its KW-7292 fingerprint disk, an external hard drive that won't let you access its data unless you've got the right fingerprint. More »

Power User - The Best of Lifehacker

This week at Lifehacker: Build yourself a solar-powered wifi booster for the backyard. Your mousing wrist feeling a little achy? Train yourself to mouse lefty (or righty, lefties.) PayPal your buddy your share of the dinner bill with your cell phone. Add encryption to Gmail and sync your Google calendar with your mobile phone or handheld.

The Secure Phone Miser Telephone Conversation Encryption Device

With all that's going on in the world nowadays, you don't to need to be wearing a tinfoil hat to understand that your privacy might not be as private as you would think. Perhaps a phone encryption device might be just what you're looking for? More »

LaCie Encrypted Portable Hard Drive

Guess Lacie's getting tired of making silly hard drives. Their new SAFE Mobile Hard Drive has biometric access (fingerprint recognition) that encrypts all the data on it with a 24-character passphrase. You can also set up access for 5 different users with differing levels of read/write permissions. More »

License to Snoop: British Officials Whinge About Microsoft Vista

Officials in the UK are whining about how hard it will be to snoop on people with the upcoming Microsoft Vista, slated to be released this December. Ross Anderson, an academic type from the University of Cambridge, told members of Parliament that Vista s data encryption would make it difficult to pry into the personal lives of its users. More »

Power User - The Best of Lifehacker

This week at Lifehacker: That sound your computer's fan is making? It roughly translates to "Help! I'm being strangled by cat hair!" Get under your PC's hood and evacuate the dust bunnies partying on your video card. More »