Term papers and cat pictures don’t merit top secret-level security, but if you’re toting around files that absolutely have to remain private, an average hard drive isn’t going to cut it. That’s why Rocstor has come up with the 750GB Rocsafe MX Mobile ($590) encrypted hard drive. Having just made its way into Apple’s online store with pre-formatting for Mac use, MX Mobile uses two-factor authentication to keep your data secure: you must physically insert a smartcard, then enter a PIN to make the drive’s contents accessible.
The drive isn’t just secure, it’s simple and reasonably fast too. There’s no setup or installation to worry about, and AES 256-bit hardware encryption is applied to the drive’s contents in real time. Although the connectivity options are a little behind the times—it relies on USB 2.0 or FireWire 800 instead of USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt—the functionality here is still interesting.