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Self-Wiping Hard Drives From Toshiba
Orome1 writes "Toshiba announced a family of self-encrypting hard disk drives engineered to automatically invalidate protected data when connected to an unknown host. Data invalidation attributes can be set for multiple data ranges, enabling targeted data in the drive to be rendered indecipherable by command, on power cycle, or on host authentication error."
I guarantee there is a or backdoor master key that will allow law enforcement to access the drive.
Nothing at all, except a motherboard failure now means you lost all your data.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I can only imagine how many IT support types will accidentally wipe these things. How sad and hilarious this will be!
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
These drives are intended for embedded application like copy machines and medical equipment. That equipment now has major security holes once it is disposed of. NOT intended for PCs or data center use. HOWEVER, for secure laptops -- they are ideal. If the laptop gets stolen, now, it is trivial to circumvent OS-enforced security and get to the data. In an environment were data backup is handled by the corporate system, if the laptop fails or is lost or the user forgets his password, you ABSOLUTELY want the data in that machine gone forever. Legitimate users of the data will get it, through the proper channels, from corporate backup.
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Or different but better protections. For instance, a drive like this might be in a remote office in China, whereas the backup (or the source of the data) is in some secure location in your home country.
I absolutely concur. However, when the government won't give you an ATO unless the product is certified, you've got no choice.