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Additional
Features
If
you thought I've covered enough features, that's far from all this highly
unique product has to offer. In fact, it seems that the possibilities
are endless and while I would love to write plenty more, I will at least
feature this last section on some additional features and software that will
be of high use to many, including those looking for ultimate security of
their personal data.
n-Crypt
**click to enlarge**
What also impressed me quite a bit was the
additional efforts from the company to actually provide and somewhat enhance
security of your system itself. That leads me to yet another unique and highly useful
feature they call "n-Crypt". While this proprietary feature plays a
role in a number of the features I have already covered, it also seamlessly
integrates with your operating system without any installation needed.
It basically provides additional options to manage your personal data and
ensure the highest level of security.
For example, it adds an option to the
right-click menu allowing you to easily encrypt any folder and/or file on
your PC using one of the seven block ciphers I briefly commented on earlier.
Also, if you look closely at the screenshot above, you'll see an option
labeled "Destroy". n-Trance prefers to refer to it better as
the "Shredder". Basically, choosing to execute this function will perform
a completely
unrecoverable deletion of the data selected, further enhancing its
already impressive security features.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
When encrypting your files using this
excellent tool, the software will add its own ".npf" extension on top of its
existing one. No, simply removing this extension and reverting back to
its original will not remove the encryption. In fact, I happen to have
some strong knowledge on file encryption and can successfully decryption a
select number of files using either manual methods or resorting to a very
select few favorite hacking tools. However, files encrypted using
n-Crypt were completely crippled and I simply could not break them,
regardless of what methods I used. Connect the drive to your PC and
the files will be recognized as encrypted and will be fully accessible.
As demonstrated in the screenshots above, without the drive connected and
authenticated, all encrypted files will not be identified as supported file
types nor will they be accessible, regardless of
whether they reside in the same OS they were originally encrypted or a
completely different OS and/or system.
n-Backup
**click to enlarge**
If all these extreme measures to protect your
data wasn't enough, the company also provides a neat little backup utility
appropriately named "n-Backup" to, well, secure your secured data.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Backing up your data is extremely easy by
following a simple wizard. Your backup files will also be encrypted
and therefore, it will prompt you for a password. You can choose which
area of the drive to backup and the biometric personal data is automatically
backed up by default.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Before it begins the backup process, it will
require you to authenticate via the biometric sensor. After you have
successfully done so, it will begin the back and you can even choose to view
the details and progress. In my tests, it took approximately 6 minutes
to backup all data. However, this will depend on how much history and
data resides on the protected area of the drive. A successful backup
will create two files,
one of which contains all the data. Restoring is just as easy via the
same utility and simple wizard.
n-Surf
The final feature I would like to show you
is one that I was not aware of until I exchanged a few emails with the
company regarding this article in general. While the link they
provided was just for demonstration, this additional functionality is
something that IT professionals can implement on their own servers to
provide a much safer method of accessing confidential and/or personal data.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Called "n-Surf", this is basically their own
patent pending technology for web authentication. n-Surf is
designed to provide a much more secure method of accessing the web or local
intranet site using the drive's own advanced authentication features.
The demo site they provided allows you to test one of many different
authentication options available that work with the n-Tegrity drive,
including fingerprint authentication for those with supported drives.
Now, I had a hell of time simply trying to go
through registration in order to test this feature out. When you go
through the registration, it will not only require that you have the drive
plugged in, but you must have all required fields filled in under the
personal information menu found on the n-Pass utility. However, even
after filling out all the data, I couldn't get passed the sign-up screen
where it requires some unique information, including the public key from the
drive itself. Not all fields were active to allow manual entry either.
After wasting about 20 minutes trying to get it to work, I finally found a
solution...
**click to enlarge**
Right clicking on the sys tray n-Pass icon and
enabling one of the n-Pass options quickly solve the problem and all
required data, including the public key, was automatically filled. It
is really a nice feature that many IT professionals can take advantage of.
It works well and provides not only a very unique method of authentication,
but a much more secure one as well.
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