Through Bluetooth Smart® technology
Secure IoT devices and home automation applications, data storage can be certified

STMicroelectronics (ST) announced the launch of the world's first portable storage medium with DataLock® encryption capable of Bluetooth Smart wireless user authentication, in collaboration with ClevX, an intellectual property and technology development company for portable storage and mobile device manufacturers.

Users can now securely interact with portable storage devices (full-disk, XTS-AES 256-bit encryption) from their smartphones or wearable devices, where all user data on the drive is encrypted, and lock/unlock using single or multiple authentication methods. This technology is suitable for consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications such as healthcare, home automation and security, secure access control systems, and portable data storage devices.

Luca Difalco, ST’s Vice President of Marketing for the Americas, stated, “The issue of IoT device authentication requires a balanced approach that considers security, convenience, and portability.” “KlepX’s DataLock BT-type portable storage device provides performance capable of achieving the best results in all these areas,” he said. “This performance is also being proven in USB drives with convenient hardware encryption features, and applications that allow access to lockdown security via Bluetooth Smart in addition to ST’s BlueNRG devices will add elegance and versatility to this product.”

ST and KLEPX provide reference designs for secure portable storage devices such as flash, hard disks, and Solid-State Disk Drives (SSDs). Licensing and collaboration are also possible with reference designs utilizing ST's Bluetooth Smart chip (BlueNRG) and the ultra-low power STM32L0 MCU. This includes ST/KLEPX-based hardware and firmware, as well as related apps for smartphones and wearable products.

The ST/KLEPX reference design is OS-host agnostic. USB drives equipped with DataLockBT technology operate on all computer platforms and embedded systems and provide various easy-to-use security layers, including wireless locking/unlocking mechanisms and authentication elements such as phone, phone + PIN, or phone + PIN + user ID/location/time. This reference design supports USB remote management capabilities, which can be a critical element for enterprise deployment, password reset, drive disablement and deletion, and compliance with corporate regulations.

Lev Bolotin, Founder and CEO of KLEPEX, stated, “If sensitive personal and corporate information is carried on a USB drive and lost, it can result in significant financial loss as well as easy exposure to unwanted information disclosure,” and added, “The DataLock BT security solution, utilizing ST and KLEPEX technology, protects data on USBs easily and simply.” Consumers, healthcare professionals, mobile experts, and corporations can all enhance productivity and secure On-The-Go (OTG) by enabling USB drives to be authenticated via their phones or by changing security options as needed.