I tested this USB drive with hidden secure storage — and it's ideal for everyday privacy

Integral Secure 360-C: 30-second review

Secure drives can be useful for all reasons — from keeping your financial and personal data safe at home to transporting sensitive work documents from one location to another. If you have those files on a secure drive and that drive gets lost, then at least you'll know that no one will be able to access those files, unless they have your password.

The Integral Secure 360-C encrypted USB flash drive is essentially of the same design as most common USB sticks, with a Type-C connector on one end. It offers decent transfer rates, a relatively large 256GB capacity, and, most importantly, the SecureLock 2 software enables you to create a secure section on the drive to protect contents from anyone trying to access them without a password.

Whilst there are plenty of secure drives out there, Integral's approach to the simple USB flash drive is slightly different. It offers an easy-to-use storage capacity that can be directly accessed as with any other storage device — open to those without the password — and then, utilising the SecureLock 2 software, you can access the secure files within the drive, which are otherwise hidden.

Initially, it does take a little time to get your head around the workflow. You can drag and drop normal files directly onto the drive, but if you want those to be secure, then you need to go through the SecureLock 2 software. This software essentially gives you a visual interface to the drive with a variety of views that for example in the split mode shows the contents of your hard drive and the storage space on the USB drive so you can transfer files from one to the other.

You can then create folders on the drive and drag and drop them from your hard drive over to the secure area of the Secure 360-C flash drive. Once you've had a short look around and understand the process, it's all relatively straightforward.

While many of the best secure drives can be a little complicated to set up and use, Integral has really worked on the Secure 360-C to make sure the SecureLock 2 software is straightforward. What's more, it's also a relatively cheap option. My review sample — a 256GB version — is relatively inexpensive at around $45 / £45, and there are capacities ranging from 8GB all the way up to 256GB, giving plenty of options.

If you need to keep files secure on a compact drive, then while this 256-bit encryption isn't the highest grade security available, for most people, it would be more than adequate. As long as you're not dealing with government secrets, the level of security on offer here should meet the needs of the vast majority.

Integral Secure 360-C: Price & availability

Secure drives can be expensive, but this 256GB of USB storage is relatively cheap price. You can pick up the drive either directly through the Integral website or through most major online retailers, such as Amazon.com.

• Score: 5/5

Integral Secure 360-C: Design & build

The design of the Integral Secure 360-C Encrypted USB is simple. The drive itself is made out of plastic, which reflects its price point, but that doesn't mean it feels cheap. There's a lanyard loop, so if you do want to attach it to your keyring, then there's an easy way to do that.

It also features the swivel contact protector, which is relatively common for this type of USB key; again, this is plastic rather than metal, as seen on some of the hardware encrypted drives, which are significantly more expensive. Once you rotate the cover around, the drive is exposed with the connector at the end — a USB 3.2 Gen 1 — which offers decent transfer speeds and wide compatibility with both Windows and Mac systems.

Aside from the lanyard loop, the rotating cap design, the USB Type-C connector, and the full plastic build, there's little else that makes the design or build of this secure flash drive stand out.

• Design & build: 4/5

Integral Secure 360-C: Features

Taking close look at the Integral Secure 360-C Encrypted USB; it comes in five different capacity options, including 16, 32, 64, 128, and the largest, 256GB version reviewed here. It also features a USB Type-C connector — this is the 3.2 Gen 1 type, which means it offers wide compatibility with a huge variety of devices.

One of the features that really sets this drive apart from most other secure drives is that it has a working partition and a SecureLock-encrypted partition. This means you can keep all your everyday files in one area of the drive and anything you want to keep secure in the read-only section. If you want the entire drive to be secure, you can expand the encrypted partition to take up the full space.

The drive features a capless design where the rotating case exposes the USB Type-C connector. This just makes it nice and convenient, and if you attach it to your keyring or keep it in a pocket, it should stay well protected.

The drive utilises the SecureLock 2 software, and alongside more standard security features, it includes some automated safety fallbacks — including the fact that if the password is entered incorrectly 10 times, the drive will automatically be formatted. Likewise, if you forget your password, you can reset the drive — though this will wipe all of the data as well.

One other thing to note is that, unlike some other USB flash drives, there's no subscription fee, and the software comes pre-installed on the drive, so there's no need to install anything separately. All the complexity of a secure drive has been taken out — it's essentially ready to go from the moment you plug it in.

The main feature of the drive is, of course, its security. It features Integral's SecureLock 2 256-bit AES encryption software, which has been designed to work on both Mac and PC systems. So, while this USB flash drive might look relatively simple, there's plenty on offer here if you need to keep your files safe in the simplest way possible.

• Features: 4/5

Integral Secure 360-C: Performance

Getting started with the Integral Secure 360-C Encrypted USB flash drive is extremely straightforward. Simply plug it in as you would with any other USB flash drive, and your Mac or PC operating system will automatically recognise it as an attached drive. Once attached, you can then double-click to open the drive, and you'll see three initial files: SecureLock, SecureLock.exe, and SecureLockSetup.dmg — so you have installers for both the PC and Mac operating systems. The thing is, it already comes set up, so all you really need to do is double-click SecureLock, and that will open the initial setup screen. Enter your password, and you're ready to go. The next time you double-click SecureLock, it will open the login screen and enable you to access the SecureLock interface, where you keep and manage all of your secure files.

Before I run through how that all works, it's also worth confirming that this can be used as a standard USB flash drive. If you want to just quickly drag and drop files onto the drive using the 256GB of capacity, then you can do so — just like with any standard flash drive. This non-secure storage on a compact drive is handy to take with you. Transfer rates for moving a selection of images onto the drive were nice and quick, and once again, the USB 3.2 interface helps ensure good transfer speeds, as confirmed in the performance tests I ran to check exactly how fast those transfers were.

The 256GB of capacity is pretty decent for documents, and while it's a good amount of space it isn't the main focus of the drive — and there are cheaper flash drives out there with this capacity — but they don't offer the security this drive does. To access the secure sections of the drive, you need to use Integral's SecureLock 2 software. Once that's loaded, a screen will appear asking you to enter your password and then click login. Once you do that, the SecureLock interface appears. It does look a little bit dated, but it's perfectly functional. The first thing you see is any encrypted files already stored on the drive, and one of the first options is to create additional folders so you can keep your secure files organised.

During the test, I set up one folder for documents, another for images, and a further folder for video. You have to click through the options at the top of the SecureLock software to reach the split view, which then enables you to quickly copy files from your computer over to the secure drive. You can also just drag and drop directly into those folders from your desktop. It's all very straightforward, although all file transfers and access for the secure files are only accessible through the software and not directly using the machine's standard OS such as Mac OS or Windows.

One of the features that has stood out compared with some other secure drives I've used in the past, is the speed. The USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface — whilst not the latest — is still good and quick. As I copied over several gigabytes of images and video to the secure section of the drive, it was great to see just how fast that was. That meant I could take photos for a client, hand over this USB flash drive, and know that only they would have access to it.

Likewise, I had some images for a product launch that needed to be sent to a client on a secure medium. Again, this is just a great, inexpensive option. While I could have transferred 200GB using something like WeTransfer, that amount of data can often take just as long as popping a flash drive in the post.

At the end of the test, I have to say — you have to think of this drive as a really quick solution for secure storage. 256-bit encryption isn't foolproof, but it will stop the vast majority of people from accessing the contents of the drive. At this price and level of quality, it's a great option if you need to keep things secure — whether that's documents at home, office or if you need to transfer valuable files. If they are truly top-secret documents, you'll need to take another step up in security, but for the vast majority of people, a secure drive of this quality and price makes perfect sense.

• Performance: 3.5/5

Should you buy the Integral Secure 360-C?

The Integral Secure 360-C Encrypted USB 256GB flash drive is a great secure storage solution. It's small, compact, relatively lightweight, and cheap for what it is. The build quality is all plastic, and it doesn't have the high-quality, premium feel that you get with some other drives — but this makes it far more accessible for everyday use, and it's set at a price point that pretty much anyone could afford. It's not actually that much more expensive than other comparable non secure flash drives.

When it comes to actual transfer speed, performance is also good. The USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface is quick, and it'll happily enable you to transfer gigabytes of data in relatively little time. This makes it a great option if you're a photographer or videographer and need to transfer large media files over to a client securely from a location where you don't have access to fast internet for uploading or downloading.

Equally, you might have documents that you need to take from one location to another, and they need to be secure. Once again, this is a really good option. It's not the most secure device available, but it strikes a good balance — and in the vast majority of situations, it will stop most prying eyes from accessing what's stored on the drive.

What's more, for anyone unfamiliar with the drive, when they plug it in and open it up, they'll probably just see the setup files — anything stored in the encrypted section is hidden and not accessible until the password is entered, and even then only through the SecureLock software.

The software interface does look a little bit dated, but it works perfectly well. For a drive at this level, it's more than you'd normally expect, and there's a good amount of functionality here that should suit most business and professional users — as well as anyone looking for a little extra security for files stored at home.

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