Replies to post #239628 on Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[dig space]

uh, because SEDs require TPMs? or uh, because making money managing SEDs w/o TPM use is somehow a lesser thing?

I said Wave has fallen out of the top tier of SED management. They have. You bring up apples in a statement about oranges.

Wave had a first mover advantage, your guy kept wandering into the basement to play on "consumer play" science projects, neglected customers, blamed floods and other vendors stepped in.

Some reminders (it seems these fundamentals have been lost on some of the "consumer play" folks):

How do I manage a large number of systems with self-encrypting drives? Is software available to administer these drives?

A: Multiple Independent Software Vendors( ISVs), who traditionally manage encryption functions, now provide management of self-encrypting drives, both locally and remotely. These currently include Absolute Software, CryptoMill, McAfee, Secude, Softex, Sophos (1H2011), Symantec (via Guardian Edge acquisition), Wave Systems and WinMagic.

My SED is incorporated in a laptop that includes a system TPM. How does the SED interact with the system Trusted Computing software and hardware?

A: The TPM and the SED are not required to interact. However, depending on the software authentication, secrets held within the TPM could be used to authenticate or to help authenticate to the SED. Note that there is also a disadvantage to using a TPM to participate in SED authentication. Should the laptop fail and the user want to move the SED to a new model, the management software would have to support moving it from one TPM to another. Otherwise the SED could not be unlocked, as it is in part controlled by the TPM in the dead system.

Do any of the software solutions that manage SEDs also manage the TPM?

A: Yes, some of the same software vendors that manage SEDs can also manage TPMs, allowing for a single management system.

Do existing software-based FDE providers also provide SED management?

A: Many software companies that support software-based FDE also provide SED management, allowing for a heterogeneous environment of both software-based FDE machines and Opal SED-based machines managed by the same infrastructure.