"Luckily, there are only two lines of drives that this comes on for now, so you aren't likely to buy one by mistake and set a PW completely by accident. The Momentus 5400 FDE.2 and the DB35 are the only two that have it for now. The 5400 is a laptop part, something that few non-techs pick up casually. The DB35 is aimed at DVRs and other media apps, again something that you get with a machine, not over the counter. There is also no word on price premiums yet, if any."
COMBINED WITH YOUR FIND: "As of now the impact of the technology is unclear as its use will largely depend on content owners and their ideas how to leverage Drive Trust. However, the fact that the technology is available first in a consumer electronics hard drive at least indicates that we will see DRM related uses before there will be any applications that will be focused on securing critical content on corporate notebooks."
By Charlie Demerjian: Monday 30 October 2006, 13:43
ONE OF THE more interesting things I heard about at IDF was a new tech from Seagate called DriveTrust. Imagine digital encryption for drives that works independently of the computer, basically the drive does it all at (presumably) drive speed. This has several advantages over software and computer based schemes, and a few downsides.
First off, everything is stored on the drive, and it is transparent. You put it in a computer, set a password, and forget it. While the press release does not say how you can boot off an encrypted volume that the BIOS does not 'need' to be aware of, one assumes this is possible. My guess it that it can selectively encrypt volumes and files. Theoretically it is painless.
If you need to put in a password to boot, the drive will be DOA until you get the aforementioned BIOS recognition. Another down side is that if the keys are on the drive, it does not do much good in a loss or theft situation, if you give someone the lock and the key, it is not a very secure setup now is it?
On the flip side of this, the drive can do something that few other solutions can, it can wipe a drive in far less than a second, and do so very securely. If you blank the keys, the data on the drive is completely readable gibberish. This means you go from analysing a platter to cracking AES, a much more complex problem.
What happens if you lose the keys? Normally, you just call the vendor up, beg, and they fix it for you, sometimes at a cost. Seagate essentially told me at IDF that it has a program called SOL to help here. That is, you call them and they tell you you are Shit Outa Luck for absolutely no cost. Basically there is no back door, if you lose your keys, game over. The end. Really. Don't say you were not warned.
For a lot of companies, governments and other security-conscious organisations, this is just what they want. For Joe Average, well, it can be problematic if he doesn't have a robust PKI infrastructure, or the post-it note falls off the monitor and the cleaning lady gets it.
Luckily, there are only two lines of drives that this comes on for now, so you aren't likely to buy one by mistake and set a PW completely by accident. The Momentus 5400 FDE.2 and the DB35 are the only two that have it for now. The 5400 is a laptop part, something that few non-techs pick up casually. The DB35 is aimed at DVRs and other media apps, again something that you get with a machine, not over the counter. There is also no word on price premiums yet, if any.
It looks like Seagate has potentially done the right thing here, an open and self-contained crypto infrastructure on a drive. As is always the case with encryption, things can be very right or very wrong. It will be interesting to see what happens when these things get into the hands of the crypto folk and they are pounded on. Whatever the case, keep an eye on these products, they have a lot of potential. µ
Countryboy--Trustdrive = TPM = Seagate DB35 = Consumer Hard Drive = "Available first in a consumer electronics hard drive at least indicates that we will see DRM related uses before there will be any applications that will be focused on securing critical content on corporate notebooks."
Seagate debuts content protection technology in hard drives Wolfgang Gruener
October 30, 2006 15:39
Orlando (FL) - Seagate today announced a first hard drive that integrates a hardware- and software-based content protection technology: Called "Drive Trust," the security platform can prevent unauthorized access to data stored on the drive. It promises users a greater peace of mind when storing critical data, but the technology is very likely to end up as a new digital rights management (DRM) solution as well.
Drive Trust has been developed as a complementary platform for the security specifications of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) and Seagate expects the platform result into a formal TCG storage specification that is scheduled for public release in early 2007. The company describes the approach as a "fully automated hardware-based security with a programming foundation," that enables content owner's software developers to take advantage of the drive's data security features on their own terms.
Locking down data has become an increasingly important topic in a time when more and more data is exchanging hands and data theft is a growing concern. In addition to already existing encryption and copy protection mechanisms, securing data directly on the hard drive is an almost logical step. And according to Seagate, Drive Trust is easy to manage, as it "automatically protects all drive data, not just selected partitions or files, at all times, and its security functions operate independently of the hard drive, preserving the hard drive's full performance." Also the company claims that the technology, which is marketed as a "feature" of certain hard drives, does not require any security patches, updates or upgrades.
The first drive to offer Drive Trust is Seagate's DB35 series, which is primarily used in digital video recorders. In the first quarter of 2007, Seagate will add a Drive Trust version of its 2.5" Momentus 5400 FDE notebook drive.
As of now the impact of the technology is unclear as its use will largely depend on content owners and their ideas how to leverage Drive Trust. However, the fact that the technology is available first in a consumer electronics hard drive at least indicates that we will see DRM related uses before there will be any applications that will be focused on securing critical content on corporate notebooks.
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