Seagate to add built-in hardware security to hard drives
Storage hardware maker Seagate has taken the wraps off its DriveTrust, technology which it claims will protect data at the hardware level of the hard drive.
A drive protected by DriveTrust will require anyone accessing it to de-encrypt its data with a password or key. Without a password, a hard drive would be useless, says the manufacturer.
Seagate says its new technology differs from most information security which either sets up a firewall around networks or encrypts data at file or operating system level.
Locking up the actual drive where the data sits is a major innovation which will become an industry standard copied by other vendors, claims Seagate.
If it delivers what Seagate claims, DriveTrust could help to end the steady stream of headlines about lost laptops yielding up critical data to hackers and thieves. Sensitive corporate and government data has regularly ended up in the public domain, for instance forcing the authorities to change plans for last month's Labour Party conference at the last minute after an unsecured computer was taken from a parked car.
