Aegis Secure Key Brute-Force Protection; Performing A Complete Reset - 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
UNLOCK button until the RED and
5. Enter the code "LastTry" (5278879) and press the UNLOCK button.
--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 UNLOCK + 0 for five seconds – with the
blinking, enter the Admin PIN and press the UNLOCK button.) The
glow solidly.
3. Press and hold the UNLOCK + 5 button for three seconds.
The RED 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 LED will blink the number of failed
GREEN LEDs blink alternately.
RED
BLUE

Performing a Complete Reset

NOTE: A complete reset will erase encryption keys and PINs and leave the Secure Key in an
unformatted condition.
There may be circumstances (forgotten PIN, redeployment, return to factory default settings)
when you need to completely reset the key. The complete reset feature will perform a
crypto-erase on the key, generate a new encryption key, delete all users, and return all of the
settings to factory default.
To perform a complete reset of the key, perform the following:
1. Press and hold UNLOCK + LOCK + 2 together for ten seconds.
The RED and
2. The GREEN
GREEN LED glowing solidly for several seconds, followed finally by the
BLUE
LEDs glowing solidly which indicates that the reset is complete.
3. A new Admin PIN will need to be entered and the key will need to be reformatted.
LED
LED will
14
BLUE LEDs will blink alternately.
and RED LEDs will glow solidly for several seconds, followed by the
GREEN and
15