14 DAY TRIAL // Storage specialist Seagate Technology announced that it will add automatic encryption capabilities to its upcoming offerings in the Cheetah 15K series of enterprise hard-disk drives. The underlying encryption algorithm is compliant to the Trusted Computing Group specifications.
According to Dianna DaGiau, senior product marketing manager at Seagate, the company plans to release the first secured drives by June or July, but the technology will only be available for the Ceetah 15K products.
The first version of the TCG Storage Architecture Core Specifications covers the methods used by a drive to recognize encryption and decryption security commands and authorization requests and will add an extra layer of protection for the corporate and enterprise-level data.
"The drive will be encrypting data coming to it," DaGiau says. "The encryption key is inside the drive and never leaves it. It will require an authentication key for decryption." The process will be based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Self-encryption will add some more benefits to the user as compared to other encryption technologies that have been introduced in the mainstream storage devices. The new Cheetah 15K drives should deliver significant performance, management, and security benefits, as the encryption engine will be located into the drive's controller ASIC.
According to the company, the encryption process is extremely fast and the drive's performance can scale with each drive that is added to the system. Compliance with the TCG specification set is extremely important because a storage system might be comprised of other storage media that are not manufactured by Seagate.
"System managers will benefit from having a common way to use the self-encrypting process," also claimed DaGiau. The self-encryption technology does not interfere with the operating system and does not require the installation of additional software.
The drives will also come with built-in Instantaneous Key-Erase technology, that can be used for safely remove the encryption when re-using the drive, disposing of it or even returning it for service.