This Drive Will Self-Destruct in 3… 2…
Don't press the big, tempting red button on this SSD unless you never want to see your data again, because it triggers self-destruction.
A recurring theme in spy movies is the written message, or other media, that self-destructs after the recipient has viewed it. A small explosion ensures that the prying eyes of an enemy will never get access to the sensitive information contained within. But this is just an over-the-top dramatic element for Hollywood movies, right?
Not entirely. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Team Group has just released a solid-state drive (SSD) for the extremely paranoid. Their P250Q-M80 SSD has a big red button that you never want to push by mistake. One press wipes all data from the drive, and this is not just a simple delete or even a process of overwriting the data with ones and zeros multiple times. The wiping process melts the flash NAND chips, physically destroying them. As such, there is no chance for data recovery.
You don’t have to go full kamikaze on the drive, however. A shorter press of the button will wipe data without physically destroying the memory chips through a process Team Group calls S/W Quick Erase. But if that big, tempting red button is held down a few seconds longer, high-voltage electricity surges into the NAND chips, frying them to a crisp and releasing all of your data in a cloud of magic smoke.
The manufacturer is targeting this drive at industrial customers, especially those working with sensitive data. As such, you cannot exactly buy it on Amazon, and no price is listed on their website (if you have to ask, it is probably out of your price range). While certain industrial customers will undoubtedly benefit from the data protection the P250Q-M80 offers, it is likely to also be a boon to criminal enterprises everywhere.