Hard disk makers agree on disk encryption standard

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) has released three final specifications for storage encryption. The three standards are geared toward hard drives used on PCs, enterprise servers, and for the purpose of interoperability with existing SCSI and ATA hard drives. All the large hard drive vendors, including the likes of Seagate, Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu are on board, as with a number of vendors of management software. The rest are expected to follow soon.

Underscoring the sheer necessity of the new standards, senior analyst Jon Oltsik from the Enterprise Strategy Group noted, "With 48 states and many countries enforcing data protection laws, it has become crucial for enterprises to protect all data to avoid fines, lawsuits or even being put out of business."

Encryption with authentication directly built into the hard disk drives, as outlined in the TCG specifications, is clearly the most effective way to ensure data is secure against virtual and physical attacks. The establishment of the TCG is expected to have some profound effects; chiefly, for vendors of software encryption, which could become redundant as encryption-enabled hard disk drives roll off production lines.

In addition, the new hard disk drives could improve the problem of theft with the devices. Robert Thibadeau, chief technologist at Seagate Technology and chairman of the TCG, sums it up: "We're protecting data at rest. When a USB drive is unplugged, or when a laptop is powered down, or when an administrator pulls a drive from a server, it can't be brought back up and read without first giving a cryptographically-strong password. If you don't have that, it's a brick. You can't even sell it on eBay."

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Computereworld

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