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ABIT's Secure IDE Motherboard
Frank Caviggia writes "The Inquirer has a story about ABIT's spiffy new IC7-MAX3 motherboard. Apparently, this motherboard has a feature called 'Secure IDE,' which is marketing-speak for hardware-based encryption ... ABIT goes on to claim that 'Secure IDE' 'will keep government supercomputers busy for weeks and will keep the RIAA away from your Kazaa files.' Pretty bold claims for a motherboard maker ..."
Wouldn't that require some intelligence by the user? I mean like not sharing their file library? It's not like the RIAA can just go into people's homes and start busting open computers for pirated music.
The RIAA isn't going after people because it finds files on their hard drive, it goes after people because it sees them sharing these files online, unencrypted. This technology is worthless against the RIAA in that respect.
The question is more: When my Mobo dies or has to be replaced, can I read my HDD on a new one?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Encryption algorythms are sufficiently advanced that key management is the real issue: Trying to brute-force it can be very difficult, but finding out the private key (which makes decryption trivial) can often be relatively easy. So, even if they used reasonably strong encryption, chances are that they won't succeed at protecting the private keys.
However, I suspect that their encryption isn't really all that strong. Doing strong encryption at speeds necessary to sustain IDE transfers (up to 50 megabytes/second *per drive*) is fairly serious stuff, especially if you want to be able to do it at sufficiently low latencies. Hardware-encryption boards that truly do strong encryption at much slower speeds than that are pretty pricey, usually at least four figures.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
A little more info:
It looks like this (physically) small key plugs directly into the encryption/decryption chip (the interface looks like a USB plug but the picture doesn't show it well; the interface itself has a 4 pin header though).
It looks like to boot your computer, the key needs to be there. So make sure the police never show up while you are using the computer, never keep the key on you and keep your case open all the time so you can attach/detach it easily?
Nice idea though. Just not entirely practical.
Everyone ranting about how this is inherently stupid since the key is just on the motherboard should actually read the article and note that the key is actually going to be stored on a removable device of some sort. So the idea is you carry the key with you at all times and just plug it into the computer when you want to use it. When the key is not in the computer the data cannot be read.
Of course this still doesn't explain the silly Kazaa claims, however that is another issue altogether. In fact this whole thing seems kind of useless since if the government were to confiscate your computer or something you'd think they could just subpoena the key as well, and it does nothing to protect against hackers since the key has to be in your computer for you do use it. Turning it off when you're not using it would be just as effective. About the only thing this is good for is in case somebody steals your computer when you're away. But it could work for that.
Physics is good
- It has *nothing* to do with the motherboard, it is a card that connects between the IDE cable and the IDE drive. Like s separate card.
- It works with all OS, no drivers. You need to start from a blank disk though because everything is being encrypted/decrypted as it passes through (if you "decrypt" plaintext something it goes horribly wrong).
- The encryption is 40 bits which is really really weak. Same as DVDs for example (ok slightly FUD because CSS was a poor algorithm)
- You have an external keyring, which acts as your hardware key.
That being said, I really don't see the big use of this. It's only good if your disk is taken, they don't take the key and it's only protecting the information (disk is as good as ever if you remove the card and format it again). Of course if you have vital company/personal/military data on your disk I suppose that might be enough of a reason.Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
according to the installation guide:
40-bit DES (US Data Encryption Standard) is adequate for general users
In much the same way that leaving the data un-encrypted is adequate for general users, I suppose.