Kingston has unveiled its DataTraveler 5000 line of portable USB flash drives, which boasts government-grade, "ultra-secure" data protection. Aimed at enterprise customers, the drives achieved FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certification (Level 3 pending) with "SPYRUS" technology, which provides 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, XTS-AES cipher mode, and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithms.
If you're wondering what all of that means, the FIPS 140-2 certification requires a validation process that meets federal standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "Level 2" means that the drives have a tamper-evident construction, and a power-on self test that verifies the encryption mechanism is working every time the drive is plugged into a USB port.
The DataTraveler 5000 are available with onboard anti-malware tools and ship in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities with prices of $111, $185, $231, and $400.