Seagate's Self-Encrypting Drive Gets Espionage Agency Certification

Storage specialist Seagate has just announced that its Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive got certified by the US National Security Agency. According to the report, Seagate's self-encrypting notebook disk drive can be safely used by U.S. government agencies and national security contractors, as it delivers maximum levels of data security.

"The National Security Agency's qualification of the Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive for U.S. government buy lists bears undeniable witness to the tremendous strength of the Seagate Secure portfolio of self-encrypting disk drives in protecting sensitive information for government, private enterprises and consumers alike", said Tom Major, vice president of Seagate's Personal Storage Business Unit.

Seagate claims that its Momentus hard-drive has passed one of the toughest tests regarding data security, called the NSTISSP #11 (National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Policy). The policy is comprised of all the requirements that ensure data confidentiality and individual / organization authentication before the information exchange occurs.

"With the soaring popularity of mobile computing worldwide, organizations and consumers need a simple, affordable way to secure consumer records, intellectual property and other sensitive information stored on mobile devices."

The Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard-drive is built on Seagate's Secure technology that is comprised of an automated hardware-based full-disk encryption algorithm, multi-factor user authentication as well as other features that allow the user to lock down the storage medium while not in use.

The Secure technology is based on a military-grade AES encryption algorithm that transparently and automatically encrypts the data exchanged between the disk drive and the host computer.

Data security is an important aspect in mobile computing; as technology evolves and mobile devices shrink, they are more likely to get lost or stolen. If notebooks get in the wrong hands, only military-grade encryption can shield data from unauthorized users.

This is Seagate's second award received from a federal agency, as last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified Seagate's transparent Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm that is also the cornerstone of the Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard-drive.