Now that self-encrypting drives are becoming increasingly available and in some cases are the ONLY drive option for enterprise PCs, servers, and storage systems, where can IT and security professionals start and get immediate value with these powerful tools for data protection?

An easy start is using these drives for one of their most powerful and simple capabilities: crypto-erase. Unlike traditional drive erasure or drive destruction methods that have proven to be costly and time consuming, crypto-erase, which is part of the TCG standards for SEDs, INSTANTLY and easily erases all data on drives, essentially overcoming all of the issues and costs of traditional methods.

That’s right: instantly and easily. Permanently. No shooting or crushing or expensive overwrite services are required. And unlike some of these traditional methods of data destruction that physically destroy the media, crypto-erasure leaves your drives intact, so they can be repurposed! Data wiping through crypto-erasure is not only cost-effective and fast, it also meets government Guidelines for Media Sanitization, for example the NIST Special Publication 800-88.

SEDs are available in all form factors, from HDDs to SSDs to enterprise class storage devices. Since many vendors now offer them, the cost differential between non-SEDs and SEDs has virtually disappeared. Many enterprises are requiring all new systems to have them, and most PC and storage vendors and integrators offer them, so why wouldn’t you deploy them… even if you only use them for data wiping when you need to retire them? When you learn more, we think you will.

Check out TCG’s recent webcast and associated materials on SEDs and data protection for more infohttp://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/media_room/events/176.