SecureUSB BT

I met SecureData at CES this year and they are in a way the reason behind this whole article. They had only recently brought out a series of Bluetooth-enabled external storage drives with hardware encryption and wanted to see if we would like to cover it. As it turns out, SecureData, via their SecureDrive business unit, have continued to partner with ClevX to help bring the SecureUSB BT to fruition. SecureDrive is the only customer of ClevX with a retail product based on their DataLock BT hardware solution, so if you would like to have the implementation, you now know exactly where to purchase from.


The SecureUSB BT comes packaged similar to the Kingston DataTraveler in that you better have a cutter around to extract the drive. In another similar move, the sleeve and drive are packaged separately to give the customer a good look at the product in, say, a brick-and-mortar store. This is also why there is a lot of information adorning the packaging on the front and back alike, with a quick-start illustration on the back and a QR code that leads you to the mobile app you will be need to make use of the Bluetooth-based encryption.


The drive is a similar metallic blue as the Kingston DataTraveler, but significantly smaller in size at 56 x 20 x 10 mm and deeper in shade. Indeed, there is no keypad taking up room here and only minimal branding, with the product name the only visible thing when the drive is closed up inside the sleeve. There is a keyhole ring on the side, but you will need to use your own key chain. The drive itself has the QR code again, as well as critical information used to unlock it for the first time in the form of the serial number. Encryption comes in the form of AES256-bit in XTS mode, and the company is in the middle of getting certified for FIPS 140-2 Level 3. An O-ring in conjunction with the sleeve provides an IP57 rating.

Update (September 24, 2019): The FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification is validated now.


You will absolutely need a mobile app to use the SecureUSB BT, and it comes in the form of the DataLock app from ClevX (iOS and android) for the average customer. Those who opt to pay for remote management will use something else, which we will get to soon enough. The app is fairly lightweight and easy to install, with minimal permissions to boot. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on for your mobile device, following which you will be prompted to search for and pair the drive to your phone or tablet. At this point, you will be asked to disconnect the drive and make a note of the device ID to input into the app for it to recognize your specific drive before it adds it to the device list as seen above.


At this point, the app begins to initialize drive encryption, following which you will have to unlock it each time for use. Make sure your mobile device and SecureUSB BT are within proximity of each other since you may lose connection if you are more than a few feet away. SecureDrive is good about having a quick start guide available online, in addition to a detailed user manual, both of which are useful for when it comes to having a good first experience. There is also an LED in red and green on the drive to indicate whether it is locked/unlocked.


Once the drive is unlocked, the mobile app opens up options that expand the user experience. In particular, depending on your mobile device, you can set the drive to unlock via other means of identification, including fingerprint, FaceID, and face recognition. You can also choose to set a new password if you prefer that, which has the same requirements as the ClevX DataLock Keypad we saw in the Kingston DataTraveler DT2000 on the previous page. Two-factor authentication comes in handy as well, but might be overkill for the average end user, though inactivity and step-away autolock are very nifty features that will be useful in a shared workspace. As expected, you can also do a remote wipe of the drive if needed, which is crucial, once you realize you will not have physical access to the drive for much longer. Perhaps handy to those who lose track of all the passwords in their lives, the password recovery feature allows for a text-message-based system on your registered mobile device. The advantage of going with a mobile app is that encryption is OS-independent, although I can see some people prefer not having to rely on a phone or tablet each time they want to use the device.


The SecureUSB BT also supports remote management in the form of an annual license to the DataLock Remote Management suite, which comes with 1 user and 1 admin support. The user in question would thus install the DataLock Managed mobile app instead, which unlocks more options we will get to shortly. But if you bought the drive for a group scenario, you will likely be the admin. In that case, you will want to skip ahead to the next paragraph.


Yup, there are three mobile apps in total for the drive. As an admin with a remote management license, you would install the DataLock Admin app instead of the other two. Setup is identical to the standard user experience, and the features of the standard app are included as well. What you get by paying for the license is a whole host of new features. Some are self-explanatory, such as provisioning the drive as needed to set up privileges for different users. We will explore the other features on the next page because there is another device family that supports remote management, and this page is long enough already.


SecureDrive rates the drive with a transfer speed of up to 130 MB/s write and 43 MB/s read. As before, take manufacturer numbers provided without context with a grain of salt. With the same test setup as for the other two USB drives, the SecureUSB BT fared very well in write speeds and was bested by the Ironkey D300S in read speeds. In practice, there was little separating the two when handling files of typical sizes ranging from a few KB to a few GB, with the DataTraveler DT2000 still being the only drive so far that was noticeably slower.


Here is a visual summary of the three USB drives examined thus far. The SecureUSB BT is the smallest of the lot and offers more features if paired with the remote management license. The others have a variation of admin/user programmability, but are not as well featured. All three drives adopt a different means of encryption, but all are high-end USB drives built to last.

The SecureUSB BT series comes in 16/32/64 GB capacity offerings and costs $119/159/189 respectively from the SecureDrive store. The optional remote management license is an additional $24.95 per year per drive. The drive by itself is overall my first choice from among the three examined USB drives, given similar pricing for the same storage capacity, especially since I always have my phone with me anyway and quite like the option to use my fingerprint to unlock the drive (and my phone). Those on the iOS platform can also use the Apple Watch to unlock the drive after setting it up, which can make for an easy access route as well. Lastly, it is smaller than the others without compromising on build quality, which makes it easier to fit alongside keys on a keychain.