Fujitsu launches fully-encrypted hard drive

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Technology vendor Fujitsu is tackling data loss by offering a range of 2.5 inch hard drives with automatic encryption.

The new drives use the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES. Encryption and decryption takes place in a processor chip built in to the hard drive mechanism, rather than in software or by using the host computer's CPU. Fujitsu argues that this is more robust than software-based encryption, and delivers better performance. For added security the encryption key is held in the drive's chip, rather than in the computer's memory.

Fujitsu will start to ship the new drives next month, with capacities ranging from 80GB to 320GB. The 2.5 inch format drives use a SATA 2 interface and run at 7,200 RPM, making them suitable for more demanding applications.

The disk drives also feature a "secure erase" feature, which Fujitsu believes will cut the total cost of ownership for organisations that need to ensure secure disposal of IT hardware at the end of its working life.

This, the company says, will be more efficient than the current generation of software-based secure wiping technologies, which erase disks by overwriting their content several times over. Fujitsu claims that its hardware-based approach cuts erase times to less than a second.

The new drive units will be available to PC makers for internal storage, with the Fujitsu unit qualified by Dell and HP for their PCs. Pricing, however, has not been set.

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