Japan’s M-Commerce plans to begin selling BEncryptor in November, a USB encryption device that uses fingerprint authentication to protect access to encrypted data. The product combines an internal hardware encryption engine with electronic certificates for sharing files among authorized users.
The Yokosuka-based company is positioning the device for data stored on cloud and shared servers, as well as information carried on removable storage. Fingerprint verification takes place inside the device, and M-Commerce says neither fingerprint data nor authentication information is transmitted to the connected computer.
BEncryptor generates cryptographic keys using an electronic-certificate approach. The company says private keys are created by the device and held in a protected internal area from which they cannot be extracted. Data encryption uses an internal AES-256 engine in CBC mode.
The certificate system is also intended to support group access rather than restricting every encrypted file to a single device owner. Each BEncryptor can hold up to 50 electronic certificates, allowing users with the same certificate on their respective devices to share encrypted information.
The company’s example divides access among management, sales and technical teams. A manager holding certificates for all three groups can encrypt information for the appropriate department, while a colleague can decrypt only material associated with a certificate stored on that colleague’s device.
Both encryption and decryption occur inside BEncryptor. This design combines an individual’s biometric authorization to use the hardware with certificate-based permissions governing which encrypted data can be accessed.
The device can also operate as fingerprint-protected USB memory with automatic encryption. It stores a history of the computers on which it has been used, and an optional restriction can limit operation to designated computers. M-Commerce says no special driver or software installation is required.
M-Commerce built the product using underlying technology from its Biocryptodisk-ISPX Track fingerprint USB memory line. The company describes BEncryptor as extending that biometric access-control approach to hardware encryption and certificate-based sharing.
M-Commerce is targeting enterprise remote work, education, medical information exchange and secure data handling in financial, research and government organizations. Its proposed applications involve sharing sensitive files while retaining device-level access controls.
The planned November introduction adds a hardware-based option for organizations sharing encrypted files through remote storage systems. Its access model keeps the biometric check and cryptographic processing on the USB device while using certificates to determine the group of authorized recipients.
Sources: M-Commerce
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
