SPYRUS and SanDisk Collaborate to Protect Sensitive Information From Loss or Global Data Espionage

SAN JOSE & MILPITAS, Calif. - SPYRUS, Inc., an innovator in portable hardware security products and solutions, and SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), the leading provider of high-performance flash memory technology, are collaborating to provide highly advanced data storage protection on next-generation removable flash storage card products.

The SPYRUS Hydra Privacy Card® (Hydra PC™) Series II version 2.0 personal encryption device provides advanced hardware security capabilities for securing data on the removable miniSD™ flash storage, including the new miniSD High Capacity (miniSDHC™) cards from SanDisk. SDHC is the new designation for any SD™ or SD-based card that is larger than 2 GB(1), including forthcoming 4 GB to 32 GB capacities, and adheres to the SD 2.0 specification. The combination of very high security and high-density data storage made possible by this collaboration offers unprecedented capabilities designed to provide secure portable data storage for government, enterprise, small office, and home users.

Miniaturization of mass storage devices and the ever-increasing amounts of memory available in popular USB flash drives have made it possible to easily move very large amounts of data from computer to computer, greatly increasing employee productivity. The downside of this innovation is the risk of loss or theft of sensitive personal and enterprise information by authorized users, or even undetected data espionage by insiders.

Hydra PC uses the latest Suite B cryptographic algorithms to protect sensitive Data at Rest (DAR) on computers or mass storage memory devices, and Data in Transit (DIT). The U.S. Government has approved Suite B algorithms as the strongest commercial-off-the-shelf cryptographic algorithms available to protect even classified data. Hydra PC also implements a unique, mathematically provable security mechanism to authenticate the device, the user, and the host computer prior to encrypting or decrypting any data on the removable miniSD flash storage, effectively protecting digital assets as if they were national secrets.

“Hydra PC provides the kind of advanced security features normally seen only in classified security products for data protection,” said Amos Marom, vice president and general manager, Computing Solutions Division at SanDisk. “The Hydra PC uses commercial algorithms that can be exported to most countries throughout the world to allow customers globally to protect their valuable and sensitive data. The combination of the Hydra PC and the innovative SanDisk memory products, including the new 4 GB miniSDHC memory card, provides high security with the best performance for large data sets.”

The Hydra PC hardware-based security features, cryptographic algorithms, key management, and key lengths are suitable for lifetime authentication and encryption security. Hydra PC also supports legacy and FIPS-approved algorithms (RSA 1024/2048, 3DES, SHA-1) for backward compatibility with existing applications, including smart card logon, encrypted and digitally signed e-mail, and VPN access. The combination of strong security in a hardware-based personal encryption device using removable miniSD data storage brings unprecedented assurance to data protection that is highly cost effective.

“SPYRUS has been a pioneer in small form factor, hardware-based encryption products. The use of replaceable miniSD cards in a single Hydra PC for data storage means that users will not be locked into a specific memory size or forced to replace their Hydra PC in order to upgrade to larger memory sizes,” said Tom Dickens, Chief Operating Officer of SPYRUS. “We’ve chosen to offer our ground-breaking Hydra PC encryption technology with the SanDisk memory products because SanDisk products have an enviable reputation for quality, reliability, performance, and high storage density.”