The self-encrypting hard drive

#1

Post by rsmiller510 » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

The self-encrypting hard drive
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Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#2

Post by Game_Ender » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:15 PM UTC

If someone has a recommendation for one of these drives with decent performance that would be great. We have some with spinning disks in laptops, and I would love to be able to upgrade to an SSD based one.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#3

Post by swatthatfly » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

Windows only.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#4

Post by cypherpunks01 » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:20 PM UTC

I'd be very worried about special proprietary drives like these that have an encryption/decryption chip. What if the chip fails? How easy will it be to read the bytes off of a drive if it fails in the future? Here are my solutions instead:

On a Mac (Lion+), use FileVault 2. It provides pre-boot full drive encryption.

On Linux, use dm-crypt/LUKS. Why oh why is this still not easy to set up?

On Windows, use TrueCrypt full drive pre-boot authentication.

On an Android phone (ICS+), use the new android full drive encryption.

On an iPhone, I imagine you're SOL?

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#5

Post by gtank » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #4

I'd be very worried about special proprietary drives like these that have an encryption/decryption chip. What if the chip fails? How easy will it be to read the bytes off of a drive if it fails in the future? Here are my solutions instead: On a Mac (Lion+), use FileVault 2. It provides pre-boot full drive encryption. On Linux, use dm-crypt/LUKS. Why oh why is this still not easy to set up? On Windows, use TrueCrypt f…

Fedora has proper disk encryption as a checkbox option during installation. It's very easy to set up.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#6

Post by mindslight » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:34 PM UTC

Friends don't let friends use snake oil encryption, like the kind offered by "on-disk" solutions. That thing even has key escrow - either cheaply-implemented 'trusted' hardware, or a second 'secret' key known by every copy of the unlocking software! There's little impetus for widespread analysis of any of these proprietary solutions, as there's too many models to focus on. If you actually want to protect your data, stick with the standard software FDE for your OS - it should be a one-click option (and hopefully the default) at installation time.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#7

Post by archangel_one » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:45 PM UTC

gtank wrote: post #5

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #4

I'd be very worried about special proprietary drives like these that have an encryption/decryption chip. What if the chip fails? How easy will it be to read the bytes off of a drive if it fails in the future? Here are my solutions instead: On a Mac (Lion+), use FileVault 2. It provides pre-boot full drive encryption. On Linux, use dm-crypt/LUKS. Why oh why is this still not easy to set up? On Windows, use TrueCrypt f…

Fedora has proper disk encryption as a checkbox option during installation. It's very easy to set up.

Ubuntu does as well, with a choice between home directories only or the whole disk. It's not actually that hard to set up dm-crypt manually, although not something I'm about to suggest to my grandmother.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#8

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:47 PM UTC

gtank wrote: post #5

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #4

I'd be very worried about special proprietary drives like these that have an encryption/decryption chip. What if the chip fails? How easy will it be to read the bytes off of a drive if it fails in the future? Here are my solutions instead: On a Mac (Lion+), use FileVault 2. It provides pre-boot full drive encryption. On Linux, use dm-crypt/LUKS. Why oh why is this still not easy to set up? On Windows, use TrueCrypt f…

Fedora has proper disk encryption as a checkbox option during installation. It's very easy to set up.

[deleted]

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#9

Post by m_eiman » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #4

I'd be very worried about special proprietary drives like these that have an encryption/decryption chip. What if the chip fails? How easy will it be to read the bytes off of a drive if it fails in the future? Here are my solutions instead: On a Mac (Lion+), use FileVault 2. It provides pre-boot full drive encryption. On Linux, use dm-crypt/LUKS. Why oh why is this still not easy to set up? On Windows, use TrueCrypt f…

iPhone storage is encrypted by default.

Re: The self-encrypting hard drive

#10

Post by pavel_lishin » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #6

Friends don't let friends use snake oil encryption, like the kind offered by "on-disk" solutions. That thing even has key escrow - either cheaply-implemented 'trusted' hardware, or a second 'secret' key known by every copy of the unlocking software! There's little impetus for widespread analysis of any of these proprietary solutions, as there's too many models to focus on. If you actually want to protect your data, s…

> or a second 'secret' key known by every copy of the unlocking software!

Are you sure that each drive doesn't have its own key, tied to the serial number?