Secure thumbdrive hacks
May 8, 2008 2:41 AM Subscribe
I have been given a Kingston Data Traveller Secure Privacy Edition thumbdrive for use at work. Is there any way of hacking it for use with OSX?
Our IT department claim that only these secure thumbdrives will be mountable on our work PCs from some unspecified date in the near future. Trouble is I have a MacBook, and need to transfer files back and forward to our work computers. Is there any way of hacking this thumbdrive to achieve this? I do not want to have to run XP on my MacBook.
Our IT department claim that only these secure thumbdrives will be mountable on our work PCs from some unspecified date in the near future. Trouble is I have a MacBook, and need to transfer files back and forward to our work computers. Is there any way of hacking this thumbdrive to achieve this? I do not want to have to run XP on my MacBook.
unless it uses some kind of wacky client
It almost certainly uses some kind of wacky client, if by "wacky" you mean a Windows application.
I don't think there's anything you can do with this unless they provide a Mac client. That said, I don't know how exactly they plan to enforce the use of these, since I'm not aware of any way to limit USB devices to allow some rather than others. Also, you may be able to simly delete the encrypted partition entirely and create an unencrypted partition.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:45 AM on May 8, 2008
It almost certainly uses some kind of wacky client, if by "wacky" you mean a Windows application.
I don't think there's anything you can do with this unless they provide a Mac client. That said, I don't know how exactly they plan to enforce the use of these, since I'm not aware of any way to limit USB devices to allow some rather than others. Also, you may be able to simly delete the encrypted partition entirely and create an unencrypted partition.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:45 AM on May 8, 2008
Response by poster: On my macbook the "wacky client" mounts the volume as some kind of DVD-ROM, to which I have neither read nor write privileges. I can't figure out how to get rid of the encrypted part.
posted by roofus at 7:03 AM on May 8, 2008
posted by roofus at 7:03 AM on May 8, 2008
It's not that the stick won't mount. It should certainly mount. However, due to the Windows-only encryption system, you won't be able to do anything with it. You will have to install XP on your MacBook in order to access any data on the stick or write to it.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:53 AM on May 8, 2008
posted by Thorzdad at 7:53 AM on May 8, 2008
You can make any thumbdrive a multiplatform secure drive via TrueCrypt and a batch script. There are about a billion tutorials out there on doing this. (Batch script only required if you want automation.)
posted by TomMelee at 11:28 AM on May 8, 2008
posted by TomMelee at 11:28 AM on May 8, 2008
If you keep all your files in the password-protected part then you'll have trouble because it is a .exe command, but if you just save your files to the same "front-screen area" as the data traveler icon they are unprotected and can be accessed with a mac.
Not sure if having the files unprotected between work and home is an option or not.
posted by doppleradar at 4:02 AM on May 9, 2008
Not sure if having the files unprotected between work and home is an option or not.
posted by doppleradar at 4:02 AM on May 9, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
All conjecture, but I doubt you'll need to install XP.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:43 AM on May 8, 2008