Seagate to padlock mobile data

Hard-drive maker Seagate Technology has provided more details on encryption technology designed to make life tougher for computer thieves.

The storage company has developed full-disk encryption technology that can be built into hard-disk drives. The new Seagate DriveTrust Technology automatically encrypts all the data written to the disk, making it inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have the correct password when the computer first boots up.

Scott Shimomura, senior product marketing manager at Seagate, said: "It is a new way of thinking about what the capabilities are of the hard drive, beyond just storage."

Data breach and privacy legislation has made security a hot topic, in particular for portable PCs and storage devices. In the past year, major organisations, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs and Fidelity Investments, have had to report embarrassing security breaches after hardware containing personal data on people went missing.

Shimomura said: "The primary market right now is the mobile computing market, because there is so much sensitive data that is being stored on notebooks. But we view DriveTrust as something that can be used in all drives."

DriveTrust is already available in Seagate's DB35 disk drives for digital video recorders and other digital entertainment devices. In the first quarter of next year, the company plans to ship a hard-disk drive for laptops that features the technology, called the Momentus 5400 FDE 2.

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Seagate pitches its encrypting hard disk as an alternative to full-disk encryption software such as products sold by PGP and PointSec Mobile Technologies. Additionally, high-end editions of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system include an encryption feature called BitLocker.

Enterprises and other organisations will be able to manage passwords and encryption keys by using third-party software, Shimomura said. Wave Systems and Secude are working on providing such tools, he said. If a password is lost, the drive could be reset by Seagate but there would be no way to get to the data.

Drives with the technology will cost more than regular drives but Seagate declined to specify the price premium.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com