Toshiba announces 2.5-inch family of self-encrypting hard disk drives which automatically invalidate protected data when connected to an unknown host. The new MKxx61GSYG models feature hardware AES 256 encryption, alongside with company’s proprietary second generation data wipe technology, Serial ATA 3.0Gbps interface, 16 MB of buffer and work at 7200 RPM.
The HDDs allows data invalidation attributes to be set for multiple data ranges, enabling targeted data in the drive to be rendered indecipherable by command, on power cycle, or on host authentication error. The drives are available in sizes ranging from 160GB to 640GB and will be available in Q1 2011.
With the latest enhancement to Toshiba’s SED technology, the risk of data theft is reduced in cases where the drive is removed from its defined host environment and connected to an unknown system. At power ON, the SED and host perform an authentication process. If the authentication fails, the drive can be configured to simply deny access or crypto-erase sensitive user data.