Protect Your Data
Understand encryption and security types to make sure your important data is safe.
Critical Areas of Data Protection
Three key areas of data protection are outlined below.
Encryption
Ensure data on the drive is securely encrypted
We offer drives with and without hardware-based encryption. Drives with encryption use AES-256 to encrypt user data at rest.
Access control
Configure the drive to only allow access to authenticated users
We offer drives with industry-standard access control methods, including ATA Security Feature Set and various TCG SSCs (subsystem classes).
Data sanitization
Securely erase the data when decommissioning the drive
All drives offer sanitize features that when operated correctly are consistent with the “Purge” function described by the NIST SP 800-88 guidelines for media sanitization.
Secure Erase (SE)
SE drives are offered without user-data encryption, and access control can be provided on SATA drives only. Drive sanitization is performed using standard ATA Security Erase, SCSI Sanitize, or NVMe™ Sanitize commands, and incorporate the Overwrite (HDD) or Block Erase (SSD) methods.
Instant Secure Erase (ISE)
ISE drives support all sanitization methods as SE drives. In addition, ISE drives have data encrypted at rest, and access control can be provided on SATA drives only. During the sanitization step, drives can be sanitized using ATA, SCSI, or NVMe standard commands but with an instant cryptographic erasure rather than requiring that the drives be overwritten or go through a block erase process.
Trusted Computing Group (TCG)
TCG drives have data encrypted at rest. Access control is handled through TCG-SSC protocols, being TCG Enterprise, TCG Opal, or TCG Ruby depending on the drive model. TCG drives support all sanitization methods as ISE drives. Additionally, TCG drives support the Revert command, which not only sanitizes the drive but returns its TCG state to the factory default.
TCG-FIPS
TCG-FIPS drives are identical to TCG, but are additionally validated by an NIST-approved laboratory to meet the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). Drives with TCG-FIPS security may also use tamper-evident features to comply with Level 2 security requirements.