Drive makers agree on single standard
The
world's six largest computer drive makers today published the final
specifications for a single, full-disk encryption standard that can be used
across all hard disk drives, solid state drives (SSD) and encryption key
management applications.
According to a press release any disk that uses the
specification will be locked without a password and and the password will be
needed even before a computer boots. Three The Trusted Computing Group (TCG)
specifications cover storage devices in consumer laptops and desktop computers
as well as enterprise-class drives used in servers and disk storage
arrays.
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. Without
it the drive is a brick that could not even be formatted and flogged on
ebay.
By agreeing on a standard drive manufacturers can bake security into
their products' firmware, lowering production costs and boosting the efficiency
of the security technology.
