Security Watch | Matt Hines » CES '08: Maxtor BlackArmor portable storage protects data at rest

January 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)

CES '08: Maxtor BlackArmor portable storage protects data at rest

TAGS: Security

Being a security guy at CES I'm keeping my eyes open for cool stuff that will relieve enterprise IT headaches. While looking around I did come across a pretty cool data at rest portable security storage solution from Maxtor called BlackArmor.

 

In a nutshell, the BlackArmor is a small (a little larger than my Treo 755p) USB 2.0 attached 160Gig drive that has hardware based 128-bit AES encryption. The drive uses single factor authentication (a 6 to 32 character password) to unlock the data on the unit.

So, drive gets stolen along with VP's bag from a hotel containing merger secrets - no problem. Drive forgotten in the back of a cab with company financials - no big deal. Someone forgets password for drive, just a tiny problem in that the entire drive is now a useless brick with the enclosed data locked up tight.

Real-time, full disk, hardware based encryption means that there's no delay on this drive for read and write access like other drives that have bolt on hardware handling encryption or using an encryption software package. So this is good. What I don't like is that there is only a password protecting the data. I'm told that this a first gen product and future products will be addressing this issue with multi-factor authentication.

I've got a podcast with a Seagate executive that I'll be posting about the unit and should get one to test out in a bit. The unit should be out to the public Q2 '08 with a pricepoint @ $149 retail for 160Gigs of storage. The BlackArmor also comes with backup and multi-computer synchronization software.

BTW, I didn't see any other drive manufacturer here announcing a secure portable drive like the BlackArmor.

Posted by Victor R. Garza on January 8, 2008 12:38 PM

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