April 27, 2026 -- The 50th Anniversary for Datakey!

The date was April 27th, 1976.  Apple Inc. had just been founded weeks earlier, and personal computing was still in its infancy.  Barbara Walters became the first female nightly network news anchor, and people flocked to record stores to purchase "45" records and 8-track tapes of Top 40 artists like the Eagles, Aerosmith, David Bowie, ELO and Hall & Oates.  This is also the date the company that would later become Datakey was incorporated.  Then known as The Systems Group, Inc., the company was founded by Bill Flies who noticed a problem in need of a solution: coworkers writing passwords on scraps of paper.  That simple observation helped spark the idea for a secure, portable electronic memory device—the Data Key.

It would take nearly five years for that idea to reach the market. In 1981, Datakey introduced its first product, the DK1400 Data Key, the same year the IBM Personal Computer debuted and helped to ignite the PC era.  In 1986, Datakey landed a contract with the National Security Agency (NSA) to develop a new product which was given the designation KSD-64A. The KSD-64A was also key shaped and was used to control access to a secure telephone, called the STU-III.  This was the first time a Datakey product was used as a Crypto Ignition Key (CIK). Today the CIK application is one of the largest uses for Datakey devices.

Over the years, various non-volatile memory technologies were incorporated and additional form factors introduced.  Some of these form factors have been incorporated into the design of the 50th Anniversary logo.  Did you spot them? 

For more information on this history of the Datakey product line, check out this blog post from 2021 on the life of Bill Flies, the founder of Datakey.