Lockheed Martin is about to give the government the ability to swap a laptop’s worth of information on a flash drive.
The aerospace’s new “IronClad” brand USB drive would jam a whole operating system, software, settings and files onto a flash drive that could be used with any computer in the world.
Each device is fully encrypted and designed to act as a “node” in an organization’s computer network. Running directly off the flash drive, the operating system keeps user’s files from ever touching the borrowed computer’s hard drive.
Managers control their security policies, track their status and location and determine what may be installed on them. Lockheed also has the ability to activate a self-destruct mechanism if the drive is ever stolen or lost.
“For now, we see federal agencies and large organizations as the ideal users because of the network that sits behind IronClad, ” said Matthew Kramer, a spokesman for Lockheed’s Information Systems & Global Services business unit. “Further down the road, we think it’d great for anyone who’d love to swap a laptop for a drive the size of a stick of gum.”
