Toshiba's New HDDs Destroy Data Automatically

[Guest]

Toshiba announced a series of self-encrypting hard drives that can actually wipe the data stored on them when they are connected to "an unknown host system."

Toshiba's New HDDs Destroy Data Automatically : Read more

 

[sabot00]

This would be useful for laptops that need to be super-secure.

 

[wickedsnow]

Agreed, for laptops or government office's.

 

[milktea]

If someone needs to take sensitive data from a government HDD, I doubt that they would simply connect it to any computer (which then crypto-erase). They would probably take the platters out and do a manual data extraction.

 

[applegetsmelaid]

This would be great for those that don't want someone else seeing their data

 

[groveborn]

No, they usually take the whole system, or just copy the files from withing the system. If they can't do that, then they'll take the harddrives. If they KNOW they will auto-erase, then maybe they'd consider taking out the platters.

Then again...why would the government need to hide data?

 

[devon64327]

To be honest I can't see much use in this. If someone really needed that data they could take the entire system, extract the plater itself or probably just circumvent the wiping process. I find myself skeptical that Toshiba has built a bulletproof method

 

[rmmil978]

My old hard drive did this all the time...wait a minute...that wasn't a feature..

 

[alidan]

id rather the drives self encrypt to 2024bit if you don't use a special key. it allows the user to be able to get the data back, without them being realistically able to peak inside.

 

[K2N hater]

It's a lot easier to reach confidential files through OS exploits than disassembling a disk. Actually sensitive files are much more likely to be stored on a redundant file server instead because... For the case some HDD with that sort of protection dies one is to pay perhaps $25000 for the files to be recovered and the contents may eventually be leaked by the data recovery company.

 

[dalethepcman]

Others have stated some of the flaws in this already. This is just another marketing Gimmick. Once someone has unfiltered physical access to your machine, everything on it is theirs for the taking.

Its difficult enough to keep a hacker from accessing things on an internet connected PC, its impossible if you give the PC to the hacker.

 

[gmarsack]

At first I thought the headline was in regard to some kind of recall. lol

 

[pirateboy]

"Toshiba said that the drives are designed for use in PCs, printers, POS systems"

lol @ pos systems

 

[tychoblu]

All your cute kitten pictures are belongin...not so fast!

 

[JOSHSKORN]

What about SATA 6 Gbps?

Why not have these for larger drives as well? Drives go up to 3 TB.

 

[bin1127]

Stick a bootable USB drive in it and it messes with the bios and gets all the data deleted.

 

[orionltd]

I thought the IBM Deathstar drives already destroyed data years ago

 

[hannibal]

I thought the IBM Deathstar drives already destroyed data years ago

They did, but not very realiable... Sometimes there were some information left behind...
;-)

/sarcasm of...

But in reality, if this works well it would be guite usefull in big companies. Maybe they could start the HD-wipe remetely, in the case if someone rob the computer.

 

[kikireeki]

What if your HDD is failing -which is a common thing among notebooks- and you want to recover the data, what would you do in that case?
It will be a (Mission Impossible) thing letterly.

 

[CPU666d1]

Like a post that I seen at hothardware that said that this technology would be good for people that own porn servers,etc in case their porn gets ripped off.

 

[fayzaan]

what if I has stuff on the interwebs!!!

 

[sonofliberty08]

i hope toshiba made desktop drive too since hitachi is gone ......

 

[LORD_ORION]

What? Toshiba drives have been doing this for years... I guess they found a way to make their defects into a feature.

 

[STravis]

This is an ok idea however as some have pointed out the positives are outweighed by the negatives (if a drive knows how to wipe data off itself without the intervention of the OS, how do you guarantee that it won't wipe off the data by accident).

 

[JimmiG]

You can't just "take out the platters", the only data you would be able to extract would be in encrypted form, which is useless without the key.