aka thumbdrive, disgo, flashdrive,
identity token, ikey, jetflash,
jumpdrive, pen drive, portable USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash
drive, stick, token, UFB, UFD (Usb Flash Drive)
or USB drive.
The official generic name is now UFD UFD. Asian companies often have a typo and call them UFBs. Most vendors are now calling them flash drives.
thumbdrive is the proprietary name used by Trek. the Singapore-based maker of the
first units. A device that looks like a keychain fob that can be used to store and transport information. It is
like a tiny solid state disk drive that plugs into your USB port. You can also use them as backup devices. A 32 MB thumbdrive holds as
much as 7 DVDs. It is reusable and orders of magnitude faster.
USB Flash drives are fragile when plugged in. If you jostle them with your leg or with your elbow, they are
toast. Best plug them in the back of the computer if you plan to leave them plugged in. The body of the drive
acts like a lever to snap the connector off. Guess how I discovered this. Both my flash drives are now dead. I
would imagine the stubbier the drive the more rugged it would be.
As Electronic Floppies
They are used much like sneakernet floppies were in the old days, except they typically hold 700 times as much. Often people use them to transport music files. The iPod is similar to a flash drive except you can’t unload the data to a different machine.
Trek makes
one with an email client on board, so you can take your email and email software with you on your keychain. The 1
GB version is only Last revised/verified: 2009-03-08
Corel gave me a 2 GB freebie flash drive. It hold thes equivalent of 3 CDs.
As Extra RAM (Random Access Memory)
ReadyBoost is a feature of Vista to use a flash drive you insert
into a USB port to speed up disk access. It caches files.
As Scratch Drive
I attempted to use my SanDisk Cruzer as a small fast hard disk for scratch files. To my chagrin, I discovered it
was much much slower than hard disk. It seems to copy files quickly, but does not handle file record I/O well. So
I suggest testing the speed of your flash drive before using it this way.
Secure flash drives
These are often used in security applications instead of manually keying passwords. You plug in your flash drive
(which contains secret authorisation or decryption keys) to any USB port in order give you access to the
confidential material. When you remove it, access is denied. Some versions are cleverly designed to prevent
malicious programs from snooping the flash drive contents, or from maliciously simulating a flash drive with
software. A flash drive might contain dozens of passwords, controlling in a very detailed way exactly what you
are allowed to access. All you have to do is plug it in, and remove it when done.
Security software is used to protect data transported in flash drives, to provide a variety of encryption keys
to encrypt corporate data on disks, and to store a list of internet passwords.
You can think of it as like a sophisticated key you plug into the ignition to give you specific access to
various functions depending on which key you use. In a car, the analog would be a child’s key that lets
them run the radio and DVD (Digital Video Disk) player only, or a valet’s key that lets them drive but not open the glove
compartment or trunk.
Clever units, such as the Safe Net iKey 2032, implement PKCS (Public-Key Cryptography Standards) #11 or cryptokey, a platform-independent scheme for hardware tokens.
There is plenty of room in there for multiple keys. You could, for example, have different keys for different
purposes or different keys for different times of day, days of the week, months, or years. They are like a more
flexible dongle. Like ordinary thumbdrives, then can contain private
keys, however, unlike ordinary flash drives, they they protect them from being duplicated, even by the owner of
the thumbkey. They keys cannot be extracted. They can only be used to digitally sign/encrypt/decrypt. So a flash
drive can behave like a robust smart card. Like a smart card, they can have a pin.
The Ironkey is a high-end secure card
that self destructs if it detects tampering. They have a James-Bondian Flash demo to explain the product.
There are flash drives with biometric finger print identification, with a built-in mini OS (Operating System), AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encrypted data,
These were specialty devices not long ago, but have become almost throw-away corporate gifts like pens. KCTS, the
local PBS (Public Broadcasting System) public TV station is giving away 1 GB thumbdrives to people who make a pledge. There are even jumbo
flash drives holding 60 GB actually a miniature hard disk. Trek flash drive make models with flash memory and hard drives
and also a model especially for security keys. You could even use an iPod
as a flash drive.
One project pending is to set up the Replicator with
flash drive-controlled encryption. They could also be used to protect expensive software from being hacked by
encrypting parts of it or the data decrypted with keys stored in the flash drive, or by putting part of the
software itself in the flash drive.
In China 2 GB flash drives are manufacturered for $3.50 each.
Trek
Trek makes a number of flash drive models in 1 to 16 GB.
| Trek flash drive Model Comparision |
|---|
| Model |
Appearance |
Weight |
Capacity |
Price
Last revised/verified: 2009-03-20 |
|---|
| flash drive Mini without AES |
two-tone keyfob |
12 grams |
1 GB to 16 GB |
to |
| flash drive Papier with AES |
exposed connector. Ultra slim. |
3 grams |
1 GB to 4 GB |
to |
| flash drive Mini with AES |
two-tone keyfob |
12 grams |
1 GB to 4 GB |
to |
Some flash drives have a SIM (Subscriber Information Module) reader. This means you can plug in a cell phone SIM and can read, edit,
delete, and back-up your cell phone phone book on your PC (Personal Computer).
Products
 | recommend Amazon⇒OCZ ATV 8 GB USB Flash Drive |
| asin: B000XFRTI8 |
| A smaller 4 GB model would be suitable for ReadyBoost-only use, though there are negligible cost savings. Get an even bigger model to hold as many files as you need to transport. Claims read at 33-35 MB/s, write at 26-30 MB/s, lifetime warranty. |
|
 | recommend Amazon⇒Corsair Voyager 16 GB GT USB Flash Drive |
| asin: B00154QAX6 |
| USB 2.0 Flash Drive. Claims read at 34 MB/s, write at 28 MB/s. all rubber, 256-bit AES SW encryption, Ten year warranty. Available in many other capacities. Good choice for ReadyBoost caching. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
 | recommend Amazon⇒OCZ 32 GB Rally2 Pen Drive |
| asin: B0013RKFB8 |
| Claims read 32-35 MB/s and write 8-15 MB/s. This model won the 2009 PC Mag editor’s choice award. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
 | recommend Amazon⇒Kingston Datatraveler USB-3 Flash Drive 32 GB |
| asin: B0041G2YPI |
| white and gray. Very fast since this is USB-3. You must have a free USB-3 connector on your computer to use this. Claims read at 80 MB/s, write at 60 MB/s. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
 | recommend Amazon⇒Corsair 32 GB Survivor GTR USB Flash Drive |
| asin: B003HAL5ZO |
| Claims read 34 MB/s, and write 28 MB/s. Extremely ruggedised aluminum case. You can even dive with it to 200 metres. You can boot to FreeDos on it and run DOS utilities such as BootSave, CmosSave, and Launder. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
 | recommend Amazon⇒Corsair 64 GB Voyager GTR USB Flash Drive |
| asin: B003BIFOB8 |
| Claims read at 34 MB/s, write at 28 MB/s. Blue lED indicator light. Ruggedised. Ten year warranty. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
 | recommend Amazon⇒IronKey USB Flash Drive 16 GB |
| asin: B002L6H7SE |
| I consider this a status symbol or corporate perk, or ideal corporate giftware. Hint hint. Secure Flash Drive protects data with always-on hardware-based encryption, stores and manages online passwords. Onboard Firefox browser for safe, private Web access. You can use it to browse using someone else’s computer without leaving a trail behind of what you looked at. FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated. There are many different models this comparison chart will help you sort them out. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
Future
I would think it should be possible to use a Universal ID in the form of a USB flash drive. It would contain a private key that
cannot be extracted or duplicated. However it could encrypt, decrypt and sign text presented to it. You would need a 4 button pin pad on it to
prevent its use by someone who stole it. It could sign software and email. It would let you make credit card purchase, access ATM (Automated Teller Machine) machines.
You could use to it prove your identity over the Internet.
It could
act as a passport, drivers licence, medical id… Goverment legislation could make it legal ID for multi-purposes which would then mean
you would not even need a wallet, just the drive on your keyring. The technology to do this is far from rocket science. The impediments
are political. I suppose it could start a bit at a time, perhaps first as a frequent visitor perk for hotel chains. It gives you access to
VIP (Very Important Person) areas. It lets you pay your bill electronically without a credit card or if your credit cards are stolen.
Very large flash drives are called SSD (Solid State Disk)s.
punctuation 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (all)
©1997-2012 2009-05-03 Roedy Green, Canadian Mind Products
USB flash drive
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