Seagate Security Looks to Lock Up Laptops

by admin October 31, 2006 at 4:19 am

The paucity of security technology on current computers has frightened people in the wake of highly publicized thefts, such as the VA laptop pilfering earlier this year.

Seagate is hoping to change that at Storage Networking World in Orlando, Fla., this week.

The hard disk drive (HDD) maker today unveiled DriveTrust, a new package of security software that includes such safeguards as file and full disk encryption to render data unreadable by users who boot up a machine and don’t have a password, as well as multi-factor user authentication.

Security experts often say that the best kind of security is a multi-layered approach that includes several safety features to lock down data.

The logic behind this is that if a hacker or perpetrator get past one line of defense, a second steps up to protect the assets on a computer.

With DriveTrust, Seagate is applying that multi-layer approach, said Scott Shimomura, senior product manager at Seagate.

DriveTrust blends hardware-based security with a programming platform that lets computer makers add security applications to shield all drive data at all times.

“This is a new concept to think of… hard drives as a development platform, where ISVs [independent software vendors] have the ability to write applications that speak to the security functionality within the drive,” Shimomura said.

Full article: internetnews.com