Its been hardly two days since Fujitsu unveiled MJA2 Series 2.5" 500GB HDD with AES 256-bit encryption, and today Hitachi came out with its own 2.5" 500gig encryption drive. The Travelstar 5K500.B hard drive combines advanced data encryption technology with eco-friendly features, such as halogen-free design and a read/write power specification that is the lowest in the industry. The 5,400RPM drive uses the industry’s latest 250GB-per-platter technology to deliver a half terabyte (500GB) of capacity in an industry-standard 9.5mm mobile form factor.

Advanced Encryption Features

The Travelstar 5K500.B features optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) for hard-drive-level data security. The drive is also expected to be the first in the industry to meet the forthcoming Storage Security specification established by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), an organization focused on developing open industry standards for security hardware and software. The TCG Storage Security specification, targeting consumer and commercial applications, is intended to discourage HDD/system theft, as well as prevent data access after HDD/system disposal.

BDE encrypts data using a private security key as it is written to the disk and then decrypts it with the key as it is retrieved, giving users the highest level of data protection available. The TCG Storage Security specification implemented in the Travelstar 5K500.B supports pre-boot authentication in hardware, and up to four separate encrypted data ranges with multiple user and administrative authentication credentials. It also speeds and simplifies the drive re-deployment process. By deleting the encryption key, the data is rendered unreadable, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming data-overwrite.

Several leading software providers are designing their enterprise management offerings to be compatible with TCG compliant hard drives, giving IT managers the ability to implement security solutions based on an industry standard.

“SECUDE software complements Hitachi’s encrypted hard drives by making them capable of pre-boot authentication, which simplifies key management, remote configuration and other security functions,” said Tristan Kromer, vice president, Data Protection Division, SECUDE. “Together with Hitachi, we are simplifying data encryption and delivering a higher level of IT security to consumer and commercial users worldwide.”

The Travelstar 5K500.B will be shipping worldwide in December. The Travelstar E5K500.B will be available by the end of the first quarter, 2009.