Nitrokey is an open source USB key to enable secure encryption and signing of data. The secret keys are always stored inside the Nitrokey which protects against malware (such as computer viruses) and attackers. A user-chosen PIN and a tamper-proof smart card protect the Nitrokey in case of loss and theft.The hardware and software of Nitrokey are available as open source, free software and open hardware which enables independent parties to verify the security of the device. Nitrokey is supported on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS.
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History
In 2008 Jan Suhr, Rudolf Böddeker and another friend were travelling and found themselves looking to use encrypted emails in internet cafés, which meant the secret keys had to remain secure against computer viruses. Some proprietary USB dongles existed at the time, but lacked in certain ways. Consequentially, they established as an open source project - Crypto Stick - in August 2008 which grew to become Nitrokey. It was a spare-time project of the founders to develop a hardware solution to enable the secure usage of email encryption. The first version of the Crypto Stick was released on 27 December 2009. In late 2014 the founders decided to professionalize the project, which was renamed Nitrokey. Nitrokey's firmware was audited by Cure53 in May 2015, and its hardware was audited by the same company in August 2015. The first four Nitrokey models became available on 18 September 2015.
Technical Features
Several Nitrokey models exist and the Nitrokey Pro is the flagship model. It contains the following features:
The upcoming Nitrokey Storage provides the same features as the Nitrokey Pro and additionally contains an encrypted mass storage.
Characteristics
Philosophy
Nitrokey's developers believes that proprietary systems can't provide strong security and that security systems need to be open source. For instance there have been cases in which NSA intercepts security devices being shipped and implanted backdoors into it. In 2011 RSA was hacked and secret keys of securID tokens been stolen which allowed hackers to circumvent their authentication. As revealed in 2010, many FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified USB storage devices from various manufacturers could easily be cracked by using a default password. Nitrokey, because of being open source and because of its transparency, wants to provide high secure system and avoid security issues which its proprietary rivals were facing. Nitrokey's mission is to provide the best Open Source security key to protect the digital lives of its users.