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Providing the most secure and easy-to-use data storage solutions.

Our Story

That “aha!” moment

Let’s travel back in time to 2008. Remember that string of government officials who would lose laptops and unencrypted USB flash drives on trains and tapas bars, exposing sensitive data?

To refresh your memory, there was the Home Office’s contractor who lost a USB drive containing details on some 84,000 prisoners across England and Wales. That same year, a USB drive holding passwords for a government computer system was found in the car park of a pub. A portable hard drive holding details of up to 5,000 employees of the justice system was lost the year before.

And lest we forget the top-secret document entitled “Al-Qaeda Vulnerabilities” left on the seat of a train, or the Army captain’s laptop stolen from under his chair at McDonald’s. Although the laptop was fully encrypted, Whitehall banned its staff from taking unencrypted devices containing personal data outside secured office premises. The Armed Forces later told Parliament that in a period of four years 121 USB drives had gone astray and the Defence Secretary reported 747 laptops that had been stolen.

After reading about all these data loss incidents, iStorage CEO John Michael saw this was a clearly growing problem with damaging consequences and identified a huge gap in the market to establish a business offering ultra-secure, easy-to-use and affordable data storage devices. Applying his 33 years’ worth of knowledge and experience enabled John to come up with ideas for products that would resolve such problems.

In 2009, iStorage was born.

Our growth

Since its conception, iStorage has continuously grown as it meets market needs, earning itself government certifications, patents, multiple awards, major customer wins, an amazing end-user customer base and wide reach with distributors in over 50 countries.

The company has been extremely successful in bringing to the market – from concept to mass production – unique products such as the patented cloudAshur solution. A recognised market leader, iStorage products incorporate a secure microprocessor that is Common Criteria EAL 5+ (Hardware Certified) whilst also meeting government certifications such as  FIPS 140-2 Level 2/3, NCSC CPA, NLNCSA BSPA/Dep-V and NATO.

Over the years, iStorage has adapted from being a hardware-only company to offering both hardware and SaaS, such as the cloudAshur KeyWriter and Remote Management Console for cloudAshur and datAshur BT. In so doing, we offer, not only hardware drives for end-users, but also allow their IT departments to manage and control all of the devices that are used within their infrastructure.

At iStorage we always strive to have a deep-rooted understanding of the market and what the requirements are from an end-user perspective, then incorporate those requirements and features customers want into our products. Having a team of people with the knowledge, experience and passion to deliver such solutions helps iStorage to continuously expand and innovate.

What iStorage’s customers get out of our products

iStorage customers can rest assured that by using our products their data will always be secure. In the event that an iStorage product is lost or stolen, our customers have peace of mind knowing the loss is limited to a piece of affordable hardware. Their precious data cannot be stolen due to the advanced security characteristics that are incorporated within iStorage products. Using military specified encryption levels, we ensure that all users of iStorage products are fully protected against data leakage, helping our customers comply to data protection and confidentiality laws.

iStorage is proud to provide its customers a first-rate level of service from pre-sale – thanks to our dedicated sales team who handle inquiries – all the way and beyond post-sale – taken care of by our technical support team. Service is very important to the business. Our friendly, enthusiastic and premium service fills each member of the iStorage team. It’s not just something we do, it’s who we are, and it guides us in everything we do. We’re with our customers and business partners all the way.

Our Values

Loyalty, honesty, integrity and ambition guides the business in everything we do.

As John warmly puts it, “I view the iStorage team as an extension of my family and I always strive to do the best I possibly can for my family.”

World’s first and only

iStorage is the world’s first and only vendor to attain the following government certifications on the diskAshur PRO2 and diskAshur DT2 range of PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted, HDDs and SSDs: FIPS 140-2 Level 2/3NCSC CPANLNCSA BSPA and NATO Restricted level.

In addition to the above certifications, iStorage’s most secure and highest capacity encrypted USB flash drive, the datAshur PRO² has been certified to: FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and the iStorage datAshur PRO has also been certified to: FIPS 140-2 Level 3NLNCSA DEP-V and NATO Restricted level.  

The diskAshur PRO3 and diskAshur DT3 are amongst the first encrypted HDDs/SSDs pending the new FIPS 140-3 Level 3 scheme. They also provide the ultimate data protection, having recently passed the CAVP (Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program) testing as part of the FIPS 140-3 Level 3 validation scheme that the products are currently being evaluated against. The issued CAVP certificates are listed below:

  • iStorage diskAshur3 cryptographic library- Certificate A5501
  • iStorage diskAshur3 EC library- Certificate A5502
  • iStorage diskAshur3 RNG library- Certificate A5500
  • iStorage Entropy Source Certificate E198

 

Please click here to see the full list of iStorage government certified products.

Industry Awards

Recognised as a pioneer in developing innovative ultra-secure portable data storage devices, iStorage has been the proud recipient of the following prestigious industry awards:

  • 2013 UK IT Industry Awards – Winner
  • 2015 UK IT Industry Awards – Finalist
  • 2016 Computing Security Awards – Winner of The Human Factor Award
  • 2016 Computing Security Excellence Awards – Winner of the SME Solution Award
  • 2016 Featured in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 List of Britain’s fastest-growing tech companies
  • 2017 Featured on FT 1000 Europe’s fastest growing companies
  • 2017 UK IT Industry Awards – Highly Commended
  • 2017 PC PRO Magazine – Security Product of the Year for the diskAshur PRO²
  • 2018 Featured on London Stock Exchange Group’s 1000 companies to inspire Britain
  • 2018 Featured on FT Future 100 UK – a list of the fast-growing businesses that are shaping the future of their sector and making positive impact on business and society – iStorage won the award for promoting Diversity in Management
  • 2018 Security Today Magazine New Product of the Year – Winner in the Tools and Hardware Category
  • 2018 BAME Awards – Our CEO John Michael was awarded a BAME award and was featured in the list of top 100 most influential BAME leaders in Tech.
  • 2019 Infosec Awards run by Cyber Defence Magazine – Our diskAshur PRO2 was awarded the “Best Encryption Product 2019”
  • 2019 One to watch – Our CEO John Michael was selected as “One to watch” in the LDC 2019 top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders Programme. 
  • 2019 UK IT Industry Awards – Our cloudAshur won the ‘Security Innovation of the Year” award.

Product Review Awards