Executives at Seagate, a disk manufacturer, have stated that built-in full disk encryption is the future of hard drives. According to a blog the company is releasing, a “hard disk will be equipped with full disk encryption, just like cars are equipped with seat belts”.
We would certainly welcome such a development, as unencrypted data has caused many privacy breaches and compromised personal data. With the increasing mobility of computers and storage media, protecting the data on them is crucial.
However, is built-in full disk encryption really the answer? Does that mean that we will have to remember a password for every hard drive we use, such as for the Data Locker?
If full disk encryption is the future, then there needs to be a new and improved way of authentication, as well. It will be interesting to follow the development of this topic.
Another point is the question of pricing. Since built-in encryption requires an additional hardware controller to handle the encryption process, full disk encrypted hard drives are still much more expensive then regular hard drives. For that reason, many people prefer the use of encryption software instead of built-in hardware encryption.
Finally, the problem of cross-platform support must also be addressed. Currently, most built-in encryption hard drives (as well as most software-based solutions) only work on Windows. This locks out Mac users and needs to be fixed before it can be the “future” of hard drives.
If you are interested in the development of encryption and encryption software, please feel free to click the subscribe button on the upper right to stay up-to-date.
Related links:
Loading ...