Provided by: n-Trance (www.n-trance.biz)
MSRP: n-Tegrity Pro 4GB - $99, n-Tegrity VoIP Pro 2GB - $89
Written by: Daniel W.

In this computer and internet day in age, we find ourselves dealing with more and more sensitive data.  Whether it be credit card numbers, login information to various accounts, or top secret files we need to carry around, having a secure way to store these things is become more and more important.  Sure, you can always try and store credit card and login information in your head, but the more of those things you have to store, the more daunting of a task it becomes.  And as for sensitive files, storing it in your mind is out of the question.

Of course you can always password everything but passwords themselves are one of the more vulnerable security measures as most people tend to use easily guessable phrases for passwords.  On the other hand, if you take the time to create a long and complex password, you are left with the tedious task of remembering that password.
n-Trance is a company that believes in data security.  They too believe that passwords are not the way to go.  Their n-Tegrity Pro biometric Personal Data Managers are a testament to this.  For this review, I will be taking a look at two of these biometric devices, which include onboard flash storage, from n-Trance – the n-Tegrity Pro and n-Tegrity VoIP Pro.  Just how and how well do these devices work?  Read on and find out.

Packaging:
The n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro Personal Data Managers come packaged in lively colored boxes decorated with an orange fingerprint pattern.  The front of the box displays a picture of the drive along with icons displaying the drives various features.  The back of the boxes describes more of the drives’ features as well as mentions some of the applications that come preinstalled on the drives.  The package’s front flap flips open to reveal the flash drive which is held in place with cardboard insets.  The various accessories that come with the drives are individually bagged.

Contents:
•    n-Tegrity Pro
o    Biometric Personal Data Manager
o    USB extension cable
o    Lanyard
o    Quick Start Guide
•    n-Tegrity VoIP Pro
o    Biometric Personal Data Manager
o    USB extension cable
o    Lanyard
o    Stereo earbud headset

Features:
•    Fingerprint-protected 256Mb to 4 Gb flash drive
•    Carries n-Pass Pro as the main application and device managing control
•    One-click VPN and RDC connection
•    Pre-installed applications including e-mail client, messengers, Skype,
•    User convenient Tray Menu
•    Autorun-enabled feature for customers applications
•    Selectable cryptographic algorithms from the list of 7 most powerful
•    RSA-2048 key pair
•    AES-256 (Rijndael) encryption of all data (default)*
•    FIPS 140-2 Level 1 compliant RNG
•    Pre-installed applications:
o    n-Pass Pro including first in the industry biometrically enabled VPN and RDC connection
o    n-Crypt – fast and convenient shell-integrated biometrically-enabled cryptographic application allowing
•    Encryption of files and folders
•    Encrypted Virtual Disks (EVD)
o    Portable Thunderbird
o    Miranda
o    Skype
o    Additional 3 rd party applications can be found at (www.n-trance.biz/products/soft/apps_list.html)

Specification:
•    Weight    : 20g
•    Operation Temperature: -30°C to +70°C
•    Interface: USB 2.0 High Speed (USB1.1 compatible)
•    Flash capacity     256Mb to 4Gb
•    Fingerprint Sensor
o    Swipe-type
o    508 dpi
o    9.6mm x 0.8mm sensing area  
o    Matching Performance: FAR     0.001%, FRR     0.1%
o    Matching time: < 250ms (30-50ms typical)

Description:
The n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro Personal Data Manager has a two tone color scheme and utilizes a sliding USB cover design.  The main body of the drive is white with a shiny finish while the sliding cover portion is dark blue with a soft matte texture.  Sliding this blue cover back reveals not only the USB plug on the end but the fingerprint reader strip on the side as well.
The n-Tegrity Pro has one blue status LED which is located on the same side as the fingerprint reader.  On the end of the drive opposite the USB plug, there is a lanyard loop.
The n-Trance n-Tegrity VoIP Pro has a very similar physical design to the n-Tegrity Pro except it is slightly boxier.  The n-Tegrity VoIP Pro also has a sliding cover that protects not only the USB plug but the fingerprint reader.

This drive’s status LED is located at the corner of the drive.  On the opposite edge, there is a 2.5mm headset jack of which the included headset can plug into.

Features and Capabilities:
The n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro’s first and foremost feature is its fingerprint scanner which allows you to biometrically secure all of the data on the drive.  Up to 10 fingerprints can be registered with the drive.  In the very basic sense, when you plug in the drive the data on it will be inaccessible until you swipe your finger across the fingerprint reader.
The n-Tegrity uses RSA-2048 keys for all encryption related functions.  The default encryption algorithm used is AES though you also have the choice of Triple-DES, Twofish, Blowfish, CAST5, Serpent, and GOST.

There are various options you can choose to further enhance the drive's security.  One such option is setting up a failed attempt number whereby if fingerprint reading fails for that many times in a row, all the data on the drive will be destroyed.  Another option is to setup a password and requiring that password along with your fingerprint scan to have access to your data.  Alternatively, the password can be setup to be an alternative (so password alone can access the drive) or as a failsafe (so after X number of failed fingerprint scans, password will be prompted) to the biometric.  Note though that both of those options can potentially weaken security.

The second major feature of the n-Tegrity Pro is its n-Pass utility which can store a variety of sensitive and/or personal data.  Information that it can store include website logins (user name and password), email account info (user name, passwords, and  POP/SMTP server settings), credit card info (including billing address), banking info, dial-up account info, web hosting info, FTP account info, instant messenger account info, and software serial numbers.

The n-Pass utility also has a contacts manager.  Contacts can be imported (via xml format and/or from Outlook and Outlook Express) as well as exported (via xml or vCards).  The xml format is mainly used to transfer information to and from other n-Tegrity users as it also contains your RSA-2048 public key.
Lastly, n-Pass can also store VPN (Virtual Private Network) and RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) information which you can then perform one click logins to those two connections.  All of the above mentioned information, for all the password record fields, the n-Pass features a random password generator to help you create new, more secure passwords.

The n-Pass utility stores all of the above mentioned data in an encrypted database located in a hidden and inaccessible partition of the drive.  That means, there is no indirect way to access or damper with the database.

The n-Tegrity Pro’s third major feature is its n-Crypt Pro functions.  N-Crypt Pro has two main capabilities.  The first of which is the ability to create EVDs (Encrypted Virtual Drives).  An EVD is a drive that is stored on a computer but is only accessible when the n-Tegrity Pro is plugged in and authenticated.  An EVD can be created from an actual drive/partition or a file of designated size.  When the n-Tegrity Pro is plugged in and authenticated, the EVDs are mounted (either automatically or manually) and show up as local drives on the computer.  For more security, EVDs can instead be setup so they show up as removable drives instead whereby recycle bins and system volume information for the drive will not be created.

The n-Crypt Pro’s second capability is ability to encrypt individual files.  This can be done by simply right clicking on a file and choosing one of the n-Crypt Pro options (shell integration happens automatically when the n-Tegrity Pro is plugged in and authenticated).  A file that is encrypted will have a small red shield superimposed onto its icon and will be tagged with an .npf extension.  Encrypted files will only be accessible when the n-Tegrity is plugged in and authenticated.  Encrypted files can be decrypted back to normal files as well as irrecoverably destroyed.

A derivative to encrypting a file is encrypting that file for someone else.  As mentioned earlier, you can import contact information from other n-Tegrity users.  When you have such a contact in your n-Pass contacts list, you can use n-Crypt to encrypt files for those contacts.  Doing this will encrypt the files using your contact’s RSA-2048 public key.  You can then send said contact the encrypted file and they will be able to access it.

The last major feature of the n-Tegrity Pro is its portable applications capability.  Though this feature is quite common – a host of flash drive makers utilize the U3 system and any flash drive can have this capability via Portableapps.com – the n-Tegrity Pro’s take on portable applications stands out simply because of the sheer number of portable applications n-Trance has put together on their site (www.n-trance.biz/products/soft/apps_list.html).  The collection of applications vasitly outnumbers that of Portableapps.  In fact, all of Portableapps’ applications are listed.  All of the applications offer instructions on how to install them into the n-Tegrity Pro as well as links to the applications’ home pages.  For most applications, n-Trance even created installers that would automatically place the programs into the appropriate directory.  Additionally, any application installed on the n-Tegrity can have the option of being auto-launched whenever the drive is plugged in and authenticated.
The n-Tegrity VoIP Pro has all of the above mentioned features and capabilities plus a built-in sound card.  The benefit of this is that it allows you to make VoIP calls on any computer connected to the internet; even of that computer has no sound card or is inaccessible to you.

Usage:
The very first time you use the n-Tegrity Pro, a 5 step setup wizard will appear which walks you through the initial security setups such as generating a random RSA-2048 key pair, registering fingerprints, and setting a password.  Though you have to set up a password to get through the wizard, you can choose not to utilize this password for anything.  After this initial setup, whenever the n-Tegrity Pro is plugged into a computer, a small window will appear prompting you to scan your finger.  Prior to scanning your finger, the drive shows up as a ~3mb read only drive.  After scanning your finger, the drive in its full capacity becomes available.

I found the fingerprint scanner to be fairly accurate.  Most of the time, it is able to successfully read my fingerprint on the first swipe. After the drive is authenticated, the n-Pass icon appears in the system tray.  Left clicking on it brings up the n-Pass utility.  Right clicking on the icon brings up the other aforementioned options such as n-Crypt EVD creation and mounting, a list of the installed portable applications, and any registered VPN accounts.  Also listed is the option to lock the drive which will make data on the drive inaccessible until you unlock it. All of the data stored in the n-Pass utility has a copy button next to its field so that you can quickly copy and paste that information into wherever you need to input that information. When browsing the internet via Internet Explorer, whenever you get to a place where you would fill in information (like logins), a small window would appear with a message telling you that n-Pass will auto save the information you fill in so that next time, it will automatically fill in that information for you.  By default, n-Pass does not monitor internet behavior from other browsers.  For Firefox however, there is a plug-in that would enable n-Pass to work with it.  That extension can be found in the Firefox section of the list of n-Tegrity portable applications.
As a whole, I found the n-Pass utility to work quite well.  The auto-fill feature is really convenient for account logins and it is nice that when I unplug n-Tegrity drive, all of that auto-fill is gone on the computer.

The n-Crypt features also worked quite well.  Depending on the size of the file, encrypting an individual file can either be quick or take a bit of time.  It is nice that as soon as I lock or unplug the drive, an encrypted file become inaccessible. The EVD is a feature I particularly like.  Whenever the n-Tegrity Pro drive is plugged in and authenticated, all of my EVDs are automatically mounted and show up in My Computer as removable drives.  I can move stuff in and out of them just as if they were actual drives.
The n-Tegrity Pro’s portable applications launcher work well.  Though its simple listing interface is not as visually appealing as that of Portableapps, it more that serves its purpose.  A few applications come preinstalled on the n-Tegrity.  One particular application I want to mention is something called My Internet Explorer.  Though Internet Explorer is not actually installed on the drive, various key folders are localized on the drive.  When you run My Internet Explorer, it will access the core Internet Explorer installed on the host computer, but all of the data for that internet session will be stored in the flash drive.

The built-in sound card on the n-Tegrity VoIP Pro works well though the included headset (which is of the noise isolating in-the-earbuds variety) offers horrible sound quality.  The headset more than suffices for VoIP functions, but listening to music is out of the question.  The audio from the sound card itself is not bad.  I was able to test it with my phone’s headset (which is of very good quality) and the audio sounded really good.
One interesting thing that does happen when you plug a headset into the drive is that it un-mounts from the computer and then remounts – but as a USB full-speed device.  The drive is still fully functional; n-Pass, n-Crypt, and all the other utilities all still work and data can still be transferred to and from the drive, though the transfers are just slower.  This behavior is mentioned in the user manual and apparently it is just something that has to happen for the built-in sound card to work.
One of my favorite things about the n-Tegrity Pro drive is that when you unplug it, the system tray automatically closes.  If the n-Pass utility was open, it too would automatically close.  It is so convenient to not have to manually go and terminate those items.  This is one thing that U3 drives as well as Portableapps do not do.

Generally, only you would have access to your own n-Trance Pro drive as your fingerprints is registered.  But, keep in mind that the drive can register up to 10 fingerprints and the drive has no way of knowing that all ten prints are from your hands.  This means, if you wanted to, you can register the fingerprints of up to ten different people so they can have access to the drive.
As for transfer speeds, for my tests, data writes to the n-Tegrity at about 4 MB/s while data can be read from the drive at about 20 MB/s.

Conclusion:
The n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro biometric Personal Data Manager are very promising devices.  The fingerprint scanner works smoothly as do the n-Crypt file and drive encrypting functions.  The n-Pass data storing utility also works very well in providing a secure and centralized place for you to keep your sensitive data.Based on information on n-Trance’s site as well as information from their developer’s, they are constantly hard at work continuously developing new features that work with their n-Tegrity drive.  The impressive list of portable applications n-Trance put together on their site is just another testament to their tireless efforts.  Though it does not appear to be on the market yet, when the n-Trance n-Tegrity Pro biometric Personal Data Managers do become available, they should be a hot commodity for anyone looking for a convenient way to securely carry around sensitive data.

Pros:
•    Fingerprint scanning security
•    Various encryption algorithms to choose from
•    System tray and n-Pass window self terminates when drive is unplugged
•    n-Pass data storage utility
•    individual file encryption capabilities
•    Encrypted Virtual Drive capabilities
•    Huge repository of portable applications
•    Auto-launch application capability

Cons:
•    Performance is a bit sluggish
•    Drive has to work in USB full-speed mode to use built-in sound card (n-Tegrity VoIP Pro)

Overall: Very Good