The problem of data security is vital nowadays, as every leak of highly sensitive data could have some potentially disastrous effects. Over time, several types of solutions have been developed in order to address this problem, but most of them were software-related, and thus, not impenetrable. That's the reason why HDD manufacturer Seagate has decided to take data security to the next level and developed the DriveTrust Technology security platform, a system that protects the data exactly where it's stored, namely directly on the hard disk.

This very innovative platform combines a fully automated hardware-based security system with a programming foundation that makes it easy to add security-based software applications as well as other specific security solutions, all meant to keep the data as safe as possible. The fact that the security system is applied directly at hardware level offers some pretty important advantages, as for example, the facts that no patches, updates or upgrades are required or that the information stored on DriveTrust Technology drives can be instantly erased, making it easy to re-deploy and retire the drives and thus reducing the time and costs traditionally associated with overwriting and erasing disc data.

Even if Seagate already offers this technology in the DB35 Series hard drives for digital video recorders (DVRs), the real large-scale applications of this security platform will come in the beginning of 2007, when the company plans to introduce the Momentus 5400 FDE.2 for notebook computers, the first hard drive with full disc encryption. This special hard drive will be a great solution for notebook owners, as it represents a very easy and cost-effective way to prevent unauthorized access to all the data in the case the system or disc drive is lost, stolen, retired or resold.