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Diploid
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Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES)
#8007771 - 02/11/08 06:54 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Woohoo! Finally!
Seagate has released a 1TB drive with native strong encryption. It implements AES on the entire drive. At bootup, a login screen comes up which asks for the key, then it caches it in RAM so a power cycle locks the drive again.
All the data passes through a dedicated embedded encryption subsystem. Once the key is cached, the encryption is transparent and seamless with no performance hit. Everything works just like an ordinary drive until a power cycle which intrinsically erases the key making the data useless until the key is entered again.
This is great news. I was wondering if it's taking so long for drive manufacturers to implement strong encryption due to behind-the-scenes pressure from the NSA or something. It doesn't make sense to me that this still isn't a standard feature on all modern drives. It's very simple to implement. The hard part of encryption is designing the algorithm, but AES is already designed and free.
In case you don't know, AES is strong encryption, not Mickey Mouse shit like Toshiba tried to implement about a year ago. When I queried them about the algorithm and key size, they said it was "proprietary".
Investing the security of your system in the secrecy (read: proprietary) of the design instead of the secrecy of the key is false security, but upper management morons never seem to get this basic principle of cryptography.
You design your safe so that even if detailed blueprints of the internal workings are available to the safecracker, he STILL can't open it without the combination. If your safe can be cracked with blueprints, then the day they're leaked to the public, every one of your customers is fucked.
If instead you design it so that knowledge of the design is insufficient to open it without the combination, THEN you have a truly secure safe. Build the system so secrecy of the key, not secrecy of the design which can be leaked, keeps the data private.
This is Cryptography 101, but upper management will never get it. Well, maybe someone at Seagate finally did. Unfortunately, I just tried to order one and only the laptop version is available. The desktop version is due out late this year.
/me crosses fingers
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Seagate Unveils New Giants -- 250GB Notebook Hard Drive and the First Encrypting 1TB Desktop PC Drive
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.-September 5, 2007-Responding to expanding demand for desktop and notebook PCs that deliver the highest levels of storage capacity with state-of-the-art security, Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) today announced a 1 terabyte (TB) desktop hard drive that uses government-grade encryption to prevent desktop PC information from falling into the wrong hands, as well as a new 250GB 2.5-inch notebook hard drive.
“Data security has traditionally focused on preventing spoofing, sniffing, eavesdropping, denial-of-service and other threats to data traversing corporate networks and the Internet,” said Tom Major, Seagate vice president of Personal Compute Business. “Now that these networks have been hardened and are much more resistant to attack, computer thugs are increasingly targeting the place where data lives – on the hard drive. Seagate is answering this threat with the strongest security available for desktop PC information.”
The Barracuda FDE (full disc encryption) hard drive is the world’s first 3.5-inch desktop PC drive with native encryption to prevent unauthorized access to data on lost or stolen hard drives or systems. Using AES encryption, a government-grade security protocol and the strongest that is commercially available, The Barracuda FDE hard drive delivers endpoint security for powered-down systems. Logging back on requires a pre-boot user password that can be buttressed with other layers of authentication such as smart cards and biometrics.
Offered in capacities up to 1TB, this 7,200-rpm encrypting desktop PC hard drive also gives organizations an easy, cost-effective way to repurpose or retire desktop computers without compromising sensitive information and to conform to the growing number of data privacy laws calling for the protection of consumer information using government-grade encryption.
Today, business PCs are frequently repurposed when employees leave or new systems are issued, requiring IT managers to repeatedly wipe the hard drive clean of information to prevent the misappropriation of sensitive data. The process can take hours and is far from full-proof. With Seagate FDE drives, all hard drive information can be easily erased and the data rendered unreadable by simply deleting the encryption key for safe, fast repurposing or disposal.
Built with the same Seagate DriveTrust Technology that powers Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drives, the world’s first notebook disc drive with built-in encryption, Barracuda FDE provides the optimal balance of capacity, performance and security. DriveTrust delivers new levels of simplicity, transparency and cost-effectiveness for securing digital information. The Seagate security platform automatically protects data stored throughout the drive, not just selected partitions or files, and its security functions operate independently of the hard drive, preserving the hard drive’s full performance. DriveTrust Technology also offers these benefits:
* With DriveTrust, secure hard drives are as easy to install and operate as standard drives. The security capabilities run transparently within the drive with no need for additional configuration. Set up can be as simple as creating a password for user authentication.
* Drive-level security requires no patches, updates or upgrades, eliminating many of the costs associated with traditional software solutions. DriveTrust Technology hard drives free IT organizations from having to distribute software updates or manage software versions, ensuring consistent and reliable security for data at rest.
* Information stored on DriveTrust drives can be quickly erased, making it easy to re-deploy and retire the drives and reducing the time and costs traditionally associated with overwriting and erasing disc data.
* DriveTrust Technology gives independent software vendors (ISVs) a platform for building stronger security applications. The DriveTrust Technology software developer kit (SDK) includes the documentation and tools necessary to build DriveTrust Technology-enabled applications such as access controls needed to manage encryption keys, passwords and other forms of authentication for large deployments.
Momentus 5400.4 – Delivering high capacity and throughput for laptop computing
As explosive growth of laptop PCs continues, more users want all the capabilities of a desktop PC, including high capacity, great performance and strong shock resistance for the power of desktop computing on-the-go. The Momentus 5400.4 hard drive, the industry’s only second-generation notebook drive to use capacity-boosting perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology, combines up to 250GB of capacity with a super-speedy Serial ATA 3.0 Gbit/second interface.
This 2.5-inch, 5400-rpm little giant delivers 250GB of capacity on just two platters and is tough to the core. Seagate’s newest notebook drive packs industry-leading operating and non-operating shock resistance of 325 Gs and 900 Gs, respectively, making it ideal for systems that are subject to rough handling or high levels of vibration. The entire series of Momentus hard drives is lean on power consumption, allowing notebook users to work longer between battery charges, and are virtually inaudible thanks to Seagate’s innovative SoftSonic fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep ramp load technology.
Momentus 5400.4 is designed for a wide range of systems including mainstream notebook PCs, workstations, external storage enclosures and small form factor desktop PCs.
Availability Momentus 5400.4 is expected to ship to system builders and original equipment manufacturers in the fourth quarter of calendar 2007, and Barracuda FDE is on track to ship in 2008. The drives exemplify Seagate’s continuing leadership in delivering cutting-edge storage technologies that are core to the explosive growth of digital information worldwide.
To learn more about how Seagate is connecting people with their content, check out our online media kit plus the latest podcasts and videoblogs, now available online at http://www.seagate.eastwick.com/newsroom/]http://www.seagate.eastwick.com/newsroom/
About Seagate Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of applications, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Branded Solutions. Seagate’s business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world’s growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at http://www.seagate.com]www.seagate.com.
Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. Barracuda and Momentus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or one of its affiliated companies. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Specified storage capacities reflect standard configurations exclusive of operating system or other software formatting. One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity. One terabyte, or TB, equals 1,000 gigabytes when referring to hard drive capacity. Accessible capacity may vary depending on operating environment and formatting.
seagate.com
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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tak
geo's henchman




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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8007788 - 02/11/08 07:06 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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This login screen -- will it support multiple drives -- and multiple partitions or is it only for the bootable drive/partition?
just curious, this sounds awesome.
-------------------- The DJ's took pills to stay awake and play for seven days.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: tak]
#8007801 - 02/11/08 07:15 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I don't know for sure, but the most likely way they do this is that during POST the drives will interrupt the BIOS as it does its ordinary startup process and ask for the key. Once the key is in, the drive will behave EXACTLY like an ordinary drive until the next power cycle.
If this is how they do it, then it will work with multiple drives, even RAID or any other use ordinary drives work for because the drive will just be an ordinary drive once it has the right key in its RAM.
I can't wait to try one out!
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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the man
still masked



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8008106 - 02/11/08 10:08 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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i bet service people will love those if they came in every computer
well i guess woudl jsut need to fill out a form with your key on it wouldnt be that big of a deal. my bad
-------------------- And Moses Said "Let my mushrooms grow!"
Edited by the man (02/11/08 10:19 AM)
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8009162 - 02/11/08 02:58 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'm looking forward to 2.5" SSDs with hardware encryption. I want one for my laptop. Of course they'll probably be SATA so I'll have to upgrade... then again, I always like a good excuse to buy new hardware.
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RuNE
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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8010193 - 02/11/08 07:02 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
If instead you design it so that knowledge of the design is insufficient to open it without the combination, THEN you have a truly secure safe. Build the system so secrecy of the key, not secrecy of the design which can be leaked, keeps the data private.
OBVIOUSLY, you have not seen The Matrix.
-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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RuNE
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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: RuNE]
#8010251 - 02/11/08 07:11 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8011993 - 02/12/08 03:50 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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The more I look at this, the more I don't like it. If you want to talk about a huge win for the RIAA/MPAA, this is it. The technology is based around the ATA Secure Command Set. It provides a method for the recording industry to securely store encrypted keys and data on hidden/protected areas of your hard drive. It is basically a round about way for the RIAA/MPAA to install DRM on your hard drive.
Get ready to lose access to your data. Remember the WD Anywhere Access fiasco a few months ago? Imagine a world where the RIAA/MPAA controls access to the data on your hard drive. It is the direction things are heading, and this is one more step in that direction. Who needs CPRM on ATA when you have this... I always wondered why the RIAA/MPAA/4C gave up on CPRM on ATA last summer. Now I know.
Do some digging on CPRM ATA 4C and compare the proposed technology with DriveTrust Technology. It isn't pretty.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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tak
geo's henchman




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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Seuss]
#8011998 - 02/12/08 04:09 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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They only control it if you let them, no?
It's not like the drive will take control of itself.
I am on the fence about piracy, but if you cannot get around it, then maybe you should pay for it. Artists do need money too.
It's not like the drive or computer are going to operate by themselves...the western digital drives were running propietary software. These are just drives as far as I know
-------------------- The DJ's took pills to stay awake and play for seven days.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: tak]
#8016311 - 02/13/08 03:23 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> They only control it if you let them, no?
Microsoft Vista already checks 30 times a second to ensure that you are complying with the DMCA and licking the feet of the RIAA/MPAA. Western Digital Anywhere Access already denies you the ability to share media files off of your hard drive, regardless of being copyrighted or not. Intel has already created a system for encrypting data from end to end at the hardware level, again with digital rights management in mind. The logical conclusion isn't difficult to see... it is only a matter of time before we lose ownership of the data on our hard drives. It has already begun, as outlined above. If you need more evidence, google "CPRM ATA 4C" and prepare to be annoyed.
> It's not like the drive will take control of itself.
Read Seagate's whitepapers on the technology. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a detailed engineering discussion. They certainly speak as if the drive were a stand alone entity, in control of itself, that allows or denies operating system requests for data based upon internal keys held on private areas of the hard drive. I didn't find anything to lead me to believe the drive was capable of filtering the data delivered based upon content type... that would be a function of the OS.
> I am on the fence about piracy, but if you cannot get around it, then maybe you should pay for it.
It isn't about piracy, it is about fairplay. I own over 500 DVDs. Originals, with proof of purchase intact. I don't want my hardware crippled because some asshole in the RIAA/MPAA is afraid that I might be stealing their data. How about I stick a camera in your home so that I can watch you to make certain that you aren't breaking any laws? You wouldn't go for that. I feel the same way about anti-piracy BS that the recording industry is forcing into the consumer electronics market. I don't need my OS checking 30 times a second to ensure that I am not violating any copyrights. I don't need the industry creating blocks so that I cannot run my opensource OS to watch movies that I have legally purchased.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Seuss]
#8016325 - 02/13/08 03:47 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Read Seagate's whitepapers on the technology. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a detailed engineering discussion.
Yeah, engineering details on this are suspiciously hard to find.
Ideally, if this works the way they are superficially saying it does, DRM wouldn't be part of the deal. From what I've read so far, the drive doesn't distinguish the type of data or file extensions or anything like that. The WD crap simply looks for .MP3 extensions on files and refuses to handle them, as I recall.
From what I see on their web, you can load Linux on it (which is decidedly anti-DRM) or even invent a whole new filesystem, and the drive wouldn't care. It would treat your data like a black box. If this is so, then DRM wouldn't be a factor below the application layer.
Did you find something specifically about this? I've sent them a support question to flesh this out a bit, but so far (two days) no reply.
BTW are those WD crapdrives still on the market? I can't imagine even a computer-illiterate person buying one of those designed-defective drives.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
Edited by Diploid (02/13/08 05:28 AM)
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Diploid]
#8016363 - 02/13/08 05:05 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> Did you find something specifically about this? I've sent them a support question to flesh this out a bit, but so far (two days) no reply.
No, nothing specific. Right now, if nothing changes, I think the technology is a fine idea. Unfortunately, it is a little too close to what the recording industry is pushing... DRM on the drive itself to secure data from the drive owner... and with other developments in the field, such as the WD fiasco, the Vista DRM happy OS, end to end hardware encryption, and the push towards TPM, it has me very worried. The lack of engineering details doesn't help my concerns.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Visionary Tools



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Seuss]
#8018216 - 02/13/08 03:45 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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This would be a boon for holding stashes of child porn.
However, the quiet ramping technology, coupled with a fluid bearing gets my attention. I have to seagate barracuda's at the moment, because I always remembered them being quiet, reliable and quick. It's true I can't hear them whirr, but read/writing is noisy as ever.
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supra
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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: Seuss]
#8018734 - 02/13/08 05:51 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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i didn't know vista checked all that stuff...
how am I able to rip and burn copyrighted dvd's then, the DRM is just faulty maybe?
peace
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Seagate Releases First Hard Drive With Native Strong Encryption (AES) [Re: supra]
#8020963 - 02/14/08 02:43 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> the DRM is just faulty maybe?
Pretty much. The DRM on DVDs is know as CSS (content scrambling system). It is faulty. The 40-bit key is only 21-bits strong. Even worse, the DRM can be cracked with only a few hundred bytes of code in real time. Once you start getting into HD technology, with end to end encryption for digital signals, you will begin to have problems.
Also... where there is a will there is a way. Somebody will figure out a way around Vista's system no matter what Microsloth does. However, there is no doubt that Vista is designed to be 100% MPAA/RIAA/DRM friendly. Our friends at MS would rather cripple their OS and preventing our legal right to fairuse, keeping the recording industry happy, rather than allow us to decide if we want to break copyright violations or not. Same idea as a car maker putting an inefficient governor on a car to keep people from going over the speed limit.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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