News

Toshiba debuts self-encrypting hard drive

April 17, 2011

Toshiba has introduced a series of self-encrypting hard drives (models MKxx61GSYG) that the company said will benefit kiosks by adding extra security.

The feature includes a self-diagnostic feature that blocks access to data if the drive doesn't recognize the host.

According to PC World, the five drives in the series, which offer 60GB to 640GB of capacity each, benefit from a feature that deletes the keys required to decrypt data when a drive is removed or is connected to an unrecognized host. The process is thus intended to prevent data thieves from accessing data on a drive that has been lost or stolen and then installed on another system.

The 2.5-inch, 7,200 rpm SEDs have been built for point-of-sale systems used in government, financial, medical, or similar high-profile institutions and organizations, as well as PC, copier and multifunction printers. Pricing details on the five different models are not yet available.

Besides being able to erase itself, the system has a few other security features. For example, when it's powered on, the host and the Toshiba system start an authentication process. From there, it can simply restrict access, wipe the entire drive or wipe only certain blocks of information on the drive. Aside from eliminating data, the Toshiba SED can also do a cryptographic erase, which deletes the keys that allow a system to decrypt data; this approach renders the data unreadable, unless you can reinstate the original keys. All methods can be jumpstarted by command, on power cycle, or on host authentication error -- which Toshiba said is an industry first.