14 DAY TRIAL // Toshiba's Storage Device Division (SDD) has recently announced that it plans to officially take the wraps off its latest self-encrypting drive technology, in a demonstration with Wave Systems' Trusted Drive Manager application at the security-focused RSA Conference 2009, starting April 21 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. According to Toshiba, this new solution is meant to enter production early next year and provide users with a number of new technologies designed to deliver enhanced security to traditional hard disk drives.
“The TCG Storage specifications provide a standards-based framework enabling storage device makers to work with leading ISVs such as Wave Systems to create very robust client security solutions that are more secure, easier to manage and easier to deploy. To help customers realize these benefits, Toshiba is focused on delivering a full array of hardware-embedded security features to security management solutions providers as evidenced in this first demonstration at the RSA Conference,” said Scott Wright, product manager at Toshiba Storage Device Division.
Wave System's Trusted Drive Manager and NIST-certified AES encryption technology are among some of the technologies that will be enabled in Toshiba's encryption package, and they are integrated in the hard drive's controller chip, which consequently allows the encryption/decryption process to take place at full I/O speeds, without impacting the performance or power requirements of the hard drive.
Although no specific technical details have been given on the upcoming Toshiba drives, the company stated that these new solutions would be available in the first quarter of next year. When launched, Toshiba's new self-encrypting drives will join those of Seagate, which currently provides a choice for 320GB or 500GB self-encrypted drives of up to 7,200 rpm. In addition to Seagate, Samsung has also announced the availability of its self-encrypted SSDs, which are featured inside Dell's laptops.