Kanguru Flash Trust – 64GB Secure Firmware Flash Drive – Write Protect Switch – SuperSpeed USB 3.0

I recently purchased the 64GB Kanguru FlashTrust USB3.0 flash drive. I bought it because I needed a drive I could plug into an untrusted computer (that didn't have an optical drive) to boot from to do diagnostics and forensics. Enforcing of signed firmware should offer protection from BadUSB style attacks (I have not tested this) and the write protection switch should protect it from other malware.The physical write protect switch worked well. If unlocked the drive is mounted as read-write by the OS, if locked it is mounted as read only. If mounted in the unlocked position, then switched to the locked position writes will fail despite the OS thinking that it is read-write.I conducted benchmarks with file sizes of 10MiB, 100MiB and 1000MiB. For the first two cases average read rate was 206.9 MB/s and the average write rate was 150.3 MB/s, for the 1000MiB test things got interesting. About 18% through the benchmark write performance dropped from an average of 150 MB/s to an average of 88 MB/s, after 49% write performance dropped to an average of 16 MB/s, after 69% write performance improved to an average of 88 MB/s (see first image).Sample Size 1000.0 MiB (100 samples)Min Read Rate: 200.4 MB/sAverage Read Rate: 206.9 MB/sMax Read Rate: 212.7 MB/sMin Write Rate: 15.2 MB/sAverage Write Rate: 84.6 MB/sMax Write Rate: 153.8 MB/sAverage Access Time: 0.46 msec (1000 samples)After such wild variation in write performance I formatted the drive and did another benchmark. The second time the write performance was more consistent with an average of 85.6 MB/s (second image).If you need the secure firmware and a physical write protection switch this is one of the few suitable products, if you don't, there are other drives that offer far more compelling performance - capacity - price ratios.

It's fairly fast (you can find benchmarks by searching).The build quality is not total rubbish, but not good enough for something so expensive. The lid especially is disappointing. It was always loose from day one, and fell apart after a few months of use.The read-only switch doesn't fix at one position or the other, it slides about freely when you are just handling the drive normally, which is annoying. If I'm putting it in an insecure system I almost want to put sticky tape on the switch to keep it in the right place.

I have tested this, cant tell you too much as will be giving secrets away, but this REALLY protects you from root kit USB type viruses. Worth every penny depending on how serious you are about security. Nowadays you cant afford to take ANY risks unless you have more money than sense. EXCELLENT. Yes as precaution you will have to use some cellotape to keep the write protect tab in the place, but small price to pay. Maybe they could think about improving this. STILL LIKE THESE BUT OH DEAR THEY GOT INFECTED WITH A ROOT KIT VIRUS. GOING TO RETURN THEM BUT HAVE BOUGHT 2 MORE IN THE HOPE THAT THESE WONT BE IF I AM VERY CAREFUL !!!