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MIPT has developed a USB drive that is impossible to steal information from. It even has protection against hacking by moving the memory chip to another board. In the settings, you can allow access to information not only to specific users, but also from specific computers. The plans include small-scale production of storage media in different volumes and with different case designs.
Impossible to hack
Specialists from the Department of Information Security at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have developed a USB drive (flash drive) that blocks any unauthorized copying of information from it. As MIPT representatives told CNews, it will be impossible to access the information even if you unsolder the flash memory module and try to copy its contents directly thanks to the "automatic data masking system"
Access to the drive can only be granted to a predetermined circle of people. You can also limit the list of computers on which the contents of the drive will be visible. This means that even if a legitimate (trusted) user tries to copy data from a flash drive on a computer that is not on the "white list", his undertaking will be doomed to failure.
When asked by the CNews editorial board whether it is possible to use the drive as a regular flash drive, without activating additional cryptographic functions, MIPT representatives answered: "This is a protected flash drive with an authentication module. It is used for special purposes".
It's the other way around
The flash drive is equipped with an authentication unit, with the help of which the device recognizes not only legal users, but also a circle of computers. As Valery Konyavsky, head of the MIPT Information Security Department and a participant in the creation of the flash drive, told CNews, "only the user and the administrator have legal access to the information stored on the protected flash drive." He also noted that "the user can set and edit the list of "allowed" computers and perform other actions related to providing access." "The scenario of using the drive by the administrator involves only reading and writing data", he added.
As a rule, it is the administrator who has full access to the settings, while users have access to only basic features. But representatives of MIPT assured the editorial staff of CNews that in the case of the drive, the situation with access rights is exactly as described by Valery Konyavsky.
"The initial installation of the statuses "user" and "admin" occurs with the help of special software that is launched directly from the flash drive", Valery Konyavsky told CNews, separately specifying that this software is stored directly in the device's memory. According to him, it is impossible to delete or overwrite it.
"The software part has two special consoles - for the administrator and for the user. This raises the question of how many administrators and users a flash drive can have? One administrator and one user. When using the device personally, one person can combine these two roles, but when using it corporately, it is better to separate these statuses," added Valery Konyavsky.
Target audience and plans for the future
At the time of publication of the material, the drive created by MIPT specialists was not available for purchase. The developers, for their part, are already preparing for its small-scale production, but MIPT does not specify how many devices are planned to be released.
Responding to CNews' question about the launch dates, university representatives responded that according to the plan, production will begin "in the next year or year and a half". MIPT also informed the editorial board that mass production is also part of the plans, but there is no certainty about the timing yet.
Protected drives can be used in a protected computer system from which data cannot be removed and into which foreign data cannot be entered. As an example, MIPT representatives cited a local enterprise network. "Integration of flash cards with an authentication unit into the information system does not reduce its security, since external media cannot be used outside of it", the university representatives noted.
Temporarily impossible import substitution
MIPT told CNews that currently protected drives are “manufactured upon request at the university’s industrial partner, JSC SAPR.” By default, modifications with a memory capacity of 8, 16, and 32 GB are available, but customers will also have the opportunity to place a separate order for flash drives of a different capacity. “This is a small-scale production – there are four modifications of the device, two of which have case options (plastic/metal)”, MIPT told CNews.
MIPT separately emphasized that the drive ready for delivery to customers “will be import-independent, that is, it will be made exclusively from domestic components”. But given that small-scale production is expected within a year and a half, the idea of completely abandoning foreign components will be physically impossible to implement.
On the one hand, Russia already has a printed circuit board production facility, and new factories are getting ready to open. There are also factories producing various microelectronic components - resistors, capacitors, etc. On the other hand, at the time of publication of the article, there was not a single sovereign mass production of flash memory in the country - a key component not only of USB flash drives, but also of SSD drives.
The editors of CNews pointed this fact out to MIPT and received the following response: “It is assumed that the finished product will be import-independent, i.e. will be made exclusively from domestic components. The team is waiting for domestic microelectronics. For now, things are as follows: The device uses imported components, but since we ourselves determine not only the software part, but also the design, we can always make changes to it so that it is possible to manufacture the device if the situation with certain electronic components changes”.
Impossible to hack
Specialists from the Department of Information Security at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have developed a USB drive (flash drive) that blocks any unauthorized copying of information from it. As MIPT representatives told CNews, it will be impossible to access the information even if you unsolder the flash memory module and try to copy its contents directly thanks to the "automatic data masking system"
Access to the drive can only be granted to a predetermined circle of people. You can also limit the list of computers on which the contents of the drive will be visible. This means that even if a legitimate (trusted) user tries to copy data from a flash drive on a computer that is not on the "white list", his undertaking will be doomed to failure.
When asked by the CNews editorial board whether it is possible to use the drive as a regular flash drive, without activating additional cryptographic functions, MIPT representatives answered: "This is a protected flash drive with an authentication module. It is used for special purposes".
It's the other way around
The flash drive is equipped with an authentication unit, with the help of which the device recognizes not only legal users, but also a circle of computers. As Valery Konyavsky, head of the MIPT Information Security Department and a participant in the creation of the flash drive, told CNews, "only the user and the administrator have legal access to the information stored on the protected flash drive." He also noted that "the user can set and edit the list of "allowed" computers and perform other actions related to providing access." "The scenario of using the drive by the administrator involves only reading and writing data", he added.
As a rule, it is the administrator who has full access to the settings, while users have access to only basic features. But representatives of MIPT assured the editorial staff of CNews that in the case of the drive, the situation with access rights is exactly as described by Valery Konyavsky.
"The initial installation of the statuses "user" and "admin" occurs with the help of special software that is launched directly from the flash drive", Valery Konyavsky told CNews, separately specifying that this software is stored directly in the device's memory. According to him, it is impossible to delete or overwrite it.
"The software part has two special consoles - for the administrator and for the user. This raises the question of how many administrators and users a flash drive can have? One administrator and one user. When using the device personally, one person can combine these two roles, but when using it corporately, it is better to separate these statuses," added Valery Konyavsky.
Target audience and plans for the future
At the time of publication of the material, the drive created by MIPT specialists was not available for purchase. The developers, for their part, are already preparing for its small-scale production, but MIPT does not specify how many devices are planned to be released.
Responding to CNews' question about the launch dates, university representatives responded that according to the plan, production will begin "in the next year or year and a half". MIPT also informed the editorial board that mass production is also part of the plans, but there is no certainty about the timing yet.
Protected drives can be used in a protected computer system from which data cannot be removed and into which foreign data cannot be entered. As an example, MIPT representatives cited a local enterprise network. "Integration of flash cards with an authentication unit into the information system does not reduce its security, since external media cannot be used outside of it", the university representatives noted.
Temporarily impossible import substitution
MIPT told CNews that currently protected drives are “manufactured upon request at the university’s industrial partner, JSC SAPR.” By default, modifications with a memory capacity of 8, 16, and 32 GB are available, but customers will also have the opportunity to place a separate order for flash drives of a different capacity. “This is a small-scale production – there are four modifications of the device, two of which have case options (plastic/metal)”, MIPT told CNews.
MIPT separately emphasized that the drive ready for delivery to customers “will be import-independent, that is, it will be made exclusively from domestic components”. But given that small-scale production is expected within a year and a half, the idea of completely abandoning foreign components will be physically impossible to implement.
On the one hand, Russia already has a printed circuit board production facility, and new factories are getting ready to open. There are also factories producing various microelectronic components - resistors, capacitors, etc. On the other hand, at the time of publication of the article, there was not a single sovereign mass production of flash memory in the country - a key component not only of USB flash drives, but also of SSD drives.
The editors of CNews pointed this fact out to MIPT and received the following response: “It is assumed that the finished product will be import-independent, i.e. will be made exclusively from domestic components. The team is waiting for domestic microelectronics. For now, things are as follows: The device uses imported components, but since we ourselves determine not only the software part, but also the design, we can always make changes to it so that it is possible to manufacture the device if the situation with certain electronic components changes”.
