Aegis Secure Key Brute-Force Protection - Apricorn Aegis Secure Key 3z User Manual

Aegis Secure Key Brute-Force Protection

What is Brute-Force Attack?
A Brute-Force Attack is a means of breaching a cryptographic data defense scheme by
systematically running an astronomical number of decryption possibilities. With AES 256
having never been cracked, the data stored on a Secure Key is going to be more than
well-protected against brute-force. But brute-force attacks aren't necessarily aimed at the
bulk of the data itself, but rather, at the drive's access PINs. After all, PINs are usually
the weakest links of any data protection plan, and as such, PINs are essentially all that a
brute-force attack needs to decrypt.
Brute-Force Feature
1. After three unsuccessful attempts, the Aegis Secure Key will add additional time
delays to each subsequent try thereafter. The
attempts after three, all the way up to the tenth (and final) try.
2. After up to ten unsuccessful attempts, the keypad will lock up, no functions will work,
and the RED LED will blink at a rate of three flashes per second.
3. From this point, the key will only allow up to ten additional attempts before the key
assumes that it is under brute-force attack and automatically deletes all of its data.
4. To gain these ten extra attempts, press and hold the 5 button and then press the
button until the
5. Enter the code "LastTry" (5278879) and press the
--You will now have ten additional attempts.
6. When the key is successfully unlocked, the Brute-Force counter will return to zero.
The number of attempts possible, both before and after the LastTry (5278879) code is
entered, can be set (in Admin Mode) between two and ten attempts.
Setting the before/after attempts to the minimum of two would allow for a total of four
attempts (two before entering the last try code and two after.)
To reduce the number of Brute-Force attempts:
1. Enter the Admin mode. (Hold
the Admin PIN and press the
3. Press and hold the
RED
The LED will double-blink.
4. Press the number of before/after attempts desired on the numeric keypad ( 2 - 9 .)
The GREEN LED will blink the same number of times to correspond to the number
you have entered (for example: the 8 button will result in eight blinks, and yield eight
attempts before the LastTry code and another eight attempts after, yielding a total
of 16.) To return the key to its default setting, press the 1 then 0 keys to change the
number back to ten attempts.
Note: The number of before and after attempts are the same, i.e., 4 before / 4 after,
8 before / 8 after, etc.
RED and GREEN LEDs blink alternately.
+ 0 for five seconds – with the
button.) The
+ 5 button for three seconds.
RED LED will blink the number of failed
button.
RED
BLUE LED will glow solidly.
LED blinking, enter
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