A flash drive whose chip can heat up to more than 100°C to trigger a self-destruct is currently listed on CrowdSupply for funding.
Designed to safeguard privacy, the Ovrdrive USB stick needs to be plugged into the computer three times in quick succession to read and write data. If you insert it like you would a regular drive, the drive will simply appear on the computer as if it were broken.
And, of course, if things get too dicey, Ovrdrive contains circuitry that can heat it to a temperature that, while not hot enough to destroy the chip, can still trigger a chemical reaction with whatever destructive material the owner puts inside the enclosure. The device is open source; you can check the official GitHub repository to improve upon the design yourself.
READ: 5 things you can do with USB flash drives
With its self-destruct feature, the drive comes in handy for professionals who need a storage solution for sensitive, confidential information to bring with them—journalists, IT security experts, researchers, among others. Heck, any random privacy nut or even paranoid conspiracy theorists will love a self-destructing product like this.
For added security measure, you can encrypt whatever’s stored in the drive. The Ovrdrive USB drive is not encrypted by default to comply with encryption restrictions in some countries. However, this is hardly an inconvenience, as encrypting the drive is a relatively straightforward task.
As of February 15, the Ovrdrive USB has reached its $3,500 goal on CrowdSupply and is slated for release by August 2024. Its target price is $69.