Toshiba launches self-encrypting, auto-wiping HDD

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Apr 2011 6:22 User comments (11)

Starting mass production in the coming months, Toshiba has introduced its new MKxx61GSYG 2.5-inch HDD, a drive that offers multiple levels of security for professionals.

MKxx61GSYG drives will wipe or encrypt all data if connected to an unknown host.

The drives will be marketed to corporate customers within the medical, government and banking fields, says Toshiba.

Whenever the drive is powered on, it will initiate authentication with the host and if it that process fails, the data is "invalidated."

Buyers have a few options for the drive. Access can either be denied, the drive can be wiped, certain blocks of info can be wiped, or certain data ranges are deleted every time the drive fails the authentication process.

The drive uses military-grade AES 256-bit encryption and will be available in up to 640GB.

There is no word on price, yet.

Tags: hard drive encryption Toshiba MKxx61GSYG

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11 user comments

114.4.2011 19:03

ph1lch

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Newbie

cool, lets hope this is avaiable to consumers as well :)

214.4.2011 19:52

bobiroc

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Senior Member

Hmm can't wait for the first person to forget their authentication and accidentally wipe their drive. Better have a good backup.

314.4.2011 20:46

statomike

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Junior Member

I hope it's also camouflaged as a more rudimentary drive. Otherwise anyone that has a need to will just transfer platters to another controller and run decryption from there.

414.4.2011 23:45

KillerBug

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AfterDawn Addict

Quote:
Whenever the drive is powered on, it will initiate authentication with the host and if it that process fails, the data is "invalidated."

That is a bit unclear...what happens if the process just ends without failing? Is there a password, fingerprint reader, or eye scanner involved? Is it just confirming that it is still in the same laptop (in which case, this wouldn't provide much security at all)?

515.4.2011 09:48

dali

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... And, one more thing to consider. If the drive authenticates the host, what happpens if the host gets damaged?

615.4.2011 10:36

Fitvideouk

Inactive

Great for Paedos and terrorrists... that must be the target market surely , as Government and medical stuff always gets leaked / hacked ...

715.4.2011 10:45

mystic

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oh yes we all want a drive that if its pulled from our machine that it can tell that its been stolen or can it if I hook this drive up as a secondary drive and not boot to it bet ya I can still get the data.. or if I clone the drive the run a password picker like ( Orphus )that reads rainbow tables I can get in...its only as good as the person who wrote the software it will be hacked as soon as it becomes public... sorry its just better to know where your stuff is and if its that important burn it to a dvd and put it in a safe off site...

815.4.2011 12:53

shortybob

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Next, a virus that unmounts, remounts and fails authentication to wipe the target's drives.

915.4.2011 13:02

Mr-Movies

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Senior Member

Just wait for a hardware failure, fix the PC and Auto Wipe-Ola all data gone, Oooops!

But there will be a way around this which means those who want to hack it still can of course. Waste of money would be my guess.

1015.4.2011 21:01

kfir1

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Is this stealth also?

1115.4.2011 22:23

Notcow

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Well, it's not for average consumer use...it says it's for bankers and government workers and such, so they dont have to worry about their laptop dying, because they are usually replaced by the company.

It looks like it's really designed to store sensitive documents and financial information for huge corperations...An average consumer may have a problem with the HDD, but yeah, it's not designed for them...

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Toshiba launches self-encrypting, auto-wiping HDD

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