Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fujitsu HDD with AES 256-bit Encryption

Posted by timothy on from the don't-lose-your-backup dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fujitsu today updated its 2.5" 320GB hard disk drive with automatic hardware-based encryption to effectively secure data against theft or loss. According to Fujitsu, the MHZ2 CJ series is the first hard disk drive in the world to support the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The drive implements the AES hardware encryption directly into the processor chip of the hard disk drive, resulting in more robust security and faster system performance than software-based encryption."

2 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is this really necessary? by thegermanpolice · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why have encryption at the hardware level when you can use e.g. Linux's crypto device-mapper tool? That also allows you to keep certain partition encrypted for privacy and other partitions unencrypted for performance. There is certain ring of truth to what you say...
    However disk encryption on the whole can and will slow computers down, not significantly on modern computers but it does.
    By transferring the overhead from the CPU to the processor built into the hard drive there is no slow down to the overall performance of the computer
    I don't know if any of you linux fans out there have performance/overhead stats on using the device-mapper tool, but for someone who is trying to get the best out of their processor, moving this process from software to hardware is the ideal solution.
  2. Re:Is this really necessary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is totally necessary. Keep in mind that this is not geared towards the home enthusiast. In that case, you are right. Those who play around with Linux on their home machines can use the Linux software based encryption.

    But in the enterprise, the ease of management of a built-in hardware-based encryption scheme can't be beat. And let's not forget that Window's dominates the enterprise market. Besides a few folk in the engineering department, nobody runs linux on their laptops. It's all Windows.

    Having a laptop stolen is a huge concern today. This will help ease that concern.