Apricorn’s Aegis Padlock SSD isn’t new, but the concept is proven. We reviewed an earlier version in 2014, though that drive cost $799 (in a 480GB capacity) versus $299 for today’s same-size model. The tiny, rugged external solid-state drive hasn’t gone unchanged, however: Improvements to the ultra-secure SSD include a wider range of capacities (now, from 240GB for $209 to 4TB for $1,199), higher speed, and additional features, as well as that lower cost per gigabyte. These enhancements serve to keep a venerable security-centric drive competitive.
Design: Security by the (Keypad) Numbers
The first thing you notice about the Aegis Padlock SSD upon unboxing it is its petite size. It fits easily into the palm of your hand, at just 0.6 by 2.5 by 3.3 inches. The all-black device’s diminutive size, coupled with the ruggedness that I’ll describe in a moment, makes it a good choice for military and first-responder applications.
On top, under the Apricorn name in silver type, is a slightly recessed alphanumeric keypad with Lock and Unlock keys. The membrane-style keypad is designed to be resistant to wear and abrasion. The keys make a satisfying and audible click when pressed. Above the keys are three status lights.
It was easy to set up an admin password that I could enter to unlock the drive. When you unplug the Padlock’s cable—a USB 3.2 Gen 1 cable with a Type-A connector, fastened to the side and fitting into a groove when not in use—from your computer, the drive relocks, and the encryption is once again enabled. (You can also configure the device to lock after a specified period of inactivity.) The Padlock SSD is software-free and completely hardware-encrypted—employing AES-XTS 256-bit military-grade encryption—making it cross-compatible and operating system-agnostic. All you need is a host device with a USB Type-A port.
Beyond the hardware-lockdown aspect, the Aegis Padlock is designed to be crushproof and vibration-resistant. The SSD’s ingress protection (IP) rating of IP66 means that it’s highly resistant to water. IP66 signifies it can withstand most anything short of high-pressure cleaning or a steam jet, let alone immersion in 1.5 meters of water for half an hour. (If you’re prone to leaving your drive in the pocket of a suit you send to be steam-cleaned, consider the iStorage DiskAshur M2, with its rating of IP68.) The Apricorn is also impervious to dirt, sand, and dust.
Security Features: Not Just a Simple PIN
The drive is validated to NIST FIPS 140-2 Level 2 requirements—the cryptography standard required by the U.S. federal government for protection of sensitive data. This validation opens the door to the drive’s adoption by clients, both governmental and in the private sector, who demand or are required to buy products providing the highest level of security.
In addition to designating an access code, you as admin can set a “self-destruct” PIN that will erase the drive’s contents when entered. You can also program the Padlock to erase its encryption key after a set number of unsuccessful login attempts.
Among the new features of the 2022 Padlock is compatibility with Aegis Configurator, a $99 software console that lets administrators program, configure, and otherwise manage a fleet of Aegis drives. The drive also provides two read-only modes: Universal Read Only is set from within the admin mode and can’t be modified or disabled by anyone save the administrator, while User Read Only can be enabled and disabled by both users and admins.
Also new are data recovery PINs and programmable PIN length. You can program a data recovery PIN at time of setup to permit regaining access to the drive; a new user PIN can be created without affecting the drive’s existing data or the admin PIN. You can also designate minimum and maximum PIN lengths between seven and 16 characters. The longer the PIN, the more secure the data on the device becomes.
Provision Lock is the ability for the admin to set up the drive so that nobody else can reset it. A user with his or her own PIN can’t modify the device’s security settings or wipe, reset, or reformat the SSD.
Apricorn backs the Aegis Padlock SSD with a three-year warranty, which is typical for security-focused external drives. The Apricorn Aegis Fortess L3 and the iStorage DiskAshur DT2, DiskAshur M2, and DiskAshur Pro2 also have three-year warranties, while the SecureData SecureDrive BT is covered for two years.
Testing the Apricorn Aegis Padlock: Faster Than Its Predecessor
We test external SSDs using PC Labs’ main storage testbed, which is built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU. The system has 16GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to 3,600MHz and employs an Nvidia GeForce discrete graphics card.
We subjected the Padlock to our usual suite of benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, BlackMagic’s Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. The first two are run on the aforementioned testbed with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on a 2016 MacBook Pro using exFAT. Crystal DiskMark’s sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. The PCMark 10 Storage test measures an SSD’s readiness for a wide variety of everyday tasks.
According to Apricorn, the Padlock SSD can deliver data transfer rates of up to 350MBps. (The company showed us Crystal DiskMark sequential read results that confirmed this.) Our own Crystal DiskMark scores fell short of this—results can vary considerably depending on system configuration and other factors—but were still well above the 150MBps rated for the read speed of the original Aegis Padlock SSD (we didn’t do the same speed test in our 2014 review), and comparable to other security-focused SSDs that we’ve reviewed recently.
The new Padlock did better in the similar but Mac-based BlackMagic sequential speed tests. Its only testing anomaly was an unusually slow result in our Mac-based drag-and-drop folder copy test, taking 13 seconds to copy and save our 1.2GB test folder to the SSD. That’s more than twice as long as other hyper-secure drives we’ve tested. That said, speed is largely an afterthought with these products, for which data and drive security are paramount.
An Ultra-Secure Classic, Now Even Better
Apricorn didn’t reinvent the wheel when it refreshed the Aegis Padlock SSD—the latest drive is an incremental upgrade of one that dates back to 2010. (You could say that Apricorn, as a secure hard-drive pioneer, helped invent the wheel in the first place, introducing many of the features found on other secure drives today and acting as an OEM supplier for other vendors.) But with its higher speed and greater capacities, new features, and drop in price, the venerable Padlock SSD is more than ready for the 2020s.
Of course, the rest of the world hasn’t stood still. Other manufacturers have come out with drives with similar features at lower costs per gigabyte; even at its new pricing the Padlock will set you back 20% to 50% more per gig than iStorage’s DiskAshur M2, which is slightly faster and more rugged and retains our Editors’ Choice honors. But if you want colossal capacity (the DiskAshur M2 maxes out at 2TB versus 4TB) or are willing to pay a bit extra for Apricorn’s reputation and 35 years of reliability, the Aegis Padlock SSD is a first-class choice.
