ASI Whitebook Gets Seagate Encrypted Drive

Written by Adam Gosling

Wednesday, 14 March 2007

Responding to a string of scandals, particularly in the Untied States where laptop theft has led to the private details of millions to get into the hands of unscrupulous theives, Seagate has started shipping a notebook disk drive that features full, automatic encryption ensuring that if your laptop does go astray, your data won't. Seagate has announced that Momentus 5400 FDE.2, the world's strongest encrypting 2.5-inch notebook PC hard drive with a comprehensive suite of powerful security capabilities, is shipping to ASI Computer Technologies for secure notebook systems that will feature Wave Systems Corp. security management software to simplify enterprise deployments. The FDE stands for Full Disc Encryption and is part of Seagate's DriveTrust Technology platform that combines strong, fully automated hardware-based security with a programming foundation that makes it easy to add security-based software applications for organization-wide encryption key management, multi-factor user authentication and other capabilities that help lock down digital information at rest. The industry has had to respond rapidly to the new threat of data loss from mobile devices. Laptop security has become increasingly important as sales continue to grow in the workplace and business places more sensitive personal and business information on them to equip mobile workers with the information they need to do their job. A recent Ponemon Institute study found 35 per cent of data breaches involved the loss of laptops or other digital devices. Back in 2005 the Institute found that organisations failed to encrypt this information because of concerns about system performance (69%), complexity (44%) and cost (25%). Today, Seagates new hard drives feature perpendicular recording technology and storage capacities of up to 160GB with a fast Serial ATA interface and hardware-based AES encryption. First to use the drives will be global distribution outfit ASI Computer Technologies which will offer the drive in a new whitebook laptop, the ASI C8015. The notebook will also feature a biometric fingerprint reader for stronger user authentication. "Computer security is a growing concern for all of our channel customers, though fear of stolen laptops is especially acute," said Kent Tibbils ASI senior director of Platform Technologies and Marketing. "And for good reason: the theft of intellectual property, customer information and other precious content stored on laptops can cost organizations dearly in legal remedies and customer retention, to say nothing of the considerable cost of restoring one's good name. Seagate's Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive with the Wave Systems management software allows ASI to deliver notebooks with the strongest, easiest to deploy security available." The ASI C8015 will also use Trusted Drive Manager from Wave Systems. This management tool simplifies setup and configuration of the encrypted drives. It makes it easier for administrators and users to create and back up passwords, and for administrators to control hard drive policies and security settings. The software also leverages Seagate's DriveTrust Technology to allow administrators to instantly and easily erase all data cryptographically so the drive can be safely redeployed or discarded. "The inherently secure hardware of the hard drive provides the ideal cryptographic environment where encryption keys and access control data are safeguarded from software attacks," said Lark Allen, executive vice president, Wave Systems. "In a major step forward for data protection, Wave's Trusted Drive Manager and Seagate DriveTrust Technology provide a new, highly secure pre-boot capability that authenticates users to their system, protecting data at rest from risks associated with loss of the notebook," said Allen. http://www.asipartner.com/ http://www.wave.com/ http://www.seagate.com/ Related news items Tiny Rugged UMPC WIth Vista -10/10/2007 Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 New Nokia Intellisync Management Features -19/08/2007 Real Savings From Mobile Deployments: IDC -05/08/2007 iPhone Gets Enterprise Credibility -16/07/2007 Newer news items No safety Risk From MacBook Batteries: Apple -29/04/2007 Acer Kept Selling Dodgy Batteries -26/04/2007 Security Video Live To Your Mobile -04/04/2007 Crackberry Cold Turkey As Voda Goes Dark -14/03/2007 ACCC Warns On Phone Scams -13/03/2007 Older news items Lenovo Recalls More Batteries -01/03/2007 Cisco Beefs Up Wireless LAN Security -18/02/2007 Exploding Laptop Video -13/11/2006 Check Point Plans Enterprise-Style Security For The Home -08/11/2006 Seagate To Encrypt Notebook Drives -30/10/2006 Tag This Now: