Scotts Valley (CA) – Seagate is more aggressively pushing its full disk encryption (FDE) hard drives and said that McAfee is now providing enterprise management level tools. Dell is the first manufacturer to ship these new drives in a 320 GB (500 GB available soon) flavor in certain mobile and desktop computer systems and while this new hardware/software combination is an enticing combination for corporations, individuals who opt for such a hard drive may want to be extra careful when using these FDE drives.
Seagate’s new FDE drives are available in 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm models with capacities up to 320 GB in Dell Latitude and Precision notebooks as well as in Optiplex 960 desktops. 500 GB versions will ship by the end of the year, the company said.
Considering the threat stolen computers pose to companies, it is easy to see why such drives can make a lot of sense. On an enterprise notebook, the drives can be managed remotely by IT staff through McAfee’s ePO software – which is used for user management, encryption policy, encryption status, setting the authentication token and unlocking a drive.
FDE hard drives are self-encrypting hard drives, which means that all information stored on the hard drive is automatically encrypted. Accessing the data requires a password. If no password is provided the hard drive is basically locked up and information is kept secure, according to Seagate. If a stolen or lost notebook is recovered, or if a user has simply forgotten a password, IT staff can unlock the hard drive via McAfee’s ePO software. If the system works as intended, critical information should be kept from unauthorized eyes on such computers.
There is one downside, however. These FDE hard drives are likely to make their way into the consumer market as well and if you should choose to purchase such a drive, you should read the manual first and take any warnings seriously: While the FDE drive encrypts data and prevents data theft if the notebook is stolen, it will also prevent you from retrieving any data, if you forget the password. Seagate told us that there is currently no way for consumers to regain access to their data in such a case.
Seagate representatives mentioned that that the manuals of FDE manuals will include warnings that users should keep the password for the drive in a safe place. But even with that warning, you just know that there will be users who will forget their password and are suddenly stuck with a hard drive they can’t access anymore. We would like to listen in to those tech support calls.
Seagate’s new FDE drives are available in 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm models with capacities up to 320 GB in Dell Latitude and Precision notebooks as well as in Optiplex 960 desktops. 500 GB versions will ship by the end of the year, the company said.
Considering the threat stolen computers pose to companies, it is easy to see why such drives can make a lot of sense. On an enterprise notebook, the drives can be managed remotely by IT staff through McAfee’s ePO software – which is used for user management, encryption policy, encryption status, setting the authentication token and unlocking a drive.
FDE hard drives are self-encrypting hard drives, which means that all information stored on the hard drive is automatically encrypted. Accessing the data requires a password. If no password is provided the hard drive is basically locked up and information is kept secure, according to Seagate. If a stolen or lost notebook is recovered, or if a user has simply forgotten a password, IT staff can unlock the hard drive via McAfee’s ePO software. If the system works as intended, critical information should be kept from unauthorized eyes on such computers.
There is one downside, however. These FDE hard drives are likely to make their way into the consumer market as well and if you should choose to purchase such a drive, you should read the manual first and take any warnings seriously: While the FDE drive encrypts data and prevents data theft if the notebook is stolen, it will also prevent you from retrieving any data, if you forget the password. Seagate told us that there is currently no way for consumers to regain access to their data in such a case.
Seagate representatives mentioned that that the manuals of FDE manuals will include warnings that users should keep the password for the drive in a safe place. But even with that warning, you just know that there will be users who will forget their password and are suddenly stuck with a hard drive they can’t access anymore. We would like to listen in to those tech support calls.