Secure portable hard disk drive storage - By: Allan Michael Taylor

Portable hard disk storage with the ease of use that USB 2.0 offers has become an essential accessory for many computer users.

IT professionals especially love to carry portable hard disk storage units so that they always have access to documentation, procedures, standards, server configurations and even disk images, that allow one to create an exact build of a computer workstation or server, in less time than a Windows or Linux install would take.

Many other professionals also rely on portable hard disk storage, lawyers for instance have substituted their hundreds of volumes of vastly expensive law references with PDF ebooks, (Portable document format files) for easy reference and convenience and portability. It's the same with many other professionals.

Portable hard disks have became especially useful for storing audio, video and computer backups. Their popularity is definitely undeniable since they are small and light and many do not require bulky external power supplies making them an essential accessory for many computer users.

As a security professional I have often encouraged clients to understand the the risk associated with using these portable hard disk drive units.

We have often heard in the news about government officials, military staff, and company executives losing laptop computers in bars, airports, trains and other public places, usually these laptops have at least minimal security in the form of a Windows password or full disk encryption using software solutions such as Bitlocker, Data Encryption Toolkit, Truecrypt, but many people or organisations fail to realise that when these laptops have had the data copied, that data is often stored without the same level of security since the data had to be decrypted in order for it to have been backed up, and considering that almost the entire content of a computers hard disk drive is copied to the portable storage unit, the security implications are huge.

The news reports often fail to mention that the laptop case often contain a portable hard disk drive with unprotected data, and that these have been the main source of data leaks.

If a portable hard disk storage unit is lost or stolen and ends up in the wrong hands, your organisations confidential or secret documents can be easily accessed by anyone.
This is an issue that has always worried me and I have in the past taken care to choose portable media such as USB pen drives that have built in security. I have avoided using portable USB 2.0 hard drive storage because of the risk involved, with anyone able to read the data on them.

Allowing just anyone to access your data in this way can cause serious security concerns for you or your organisation.

The risks of having your data accessible to prying eyes include :-
The risk of impersonation with intent to commit fraud,
Potential for blackmail,
Claims for damages from clients, partners or other stakeholders,
Embarrassment to yourself, your family or organisation.
Fines or penalties,
Risk of prosecutions.

Of the many portable hard disk drive manufacturers, it is hard to believe how the main focus for their advertising are hard disk size and access speeds. Since the technology has more or less made the same advances across the board these points seem rather trivial when almost universally they have failed to address the obvious security concerns for their products.

iStorage diskGenie range offers huge USB 2.0 portable hard disk units with the convenience and speed of USB 2.0 and with the added security of built-in AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 128-bit and 256 bit real-time hardware encryption. Encryption means that the data on the disk is completely unreadable to those who do not have permission to read it.

This works by using a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptographic chip that provides full-disk encryption (FDE) using the latest military strength encryption
algorithm which means that the disk drive is completely inaccessible to anyone without the correct pin code. This pin code can be set to 6 - 16 digits in length making guessing the correct pin virtually impossible for the data thief.

The advantage of having the cryptographic chip built-in to the diskGenie USB 2.0 portable hard disk units is that it provides super fast encryption and decryption that it is impossible to match by a software encryption solution. It is also far more reliable than third party software encryption schemes, and after the pin code is entered encryption and decryption operations are completely invisible to the user.

For even more convenience the iStorage diskGenie has a large alpha numeric keypad built into the unit so you can set up the secure pin code very quickly and you can also get access to your encrypted data simply by plugging in the attached USB 2.0 cable into a computer or laptop and tapping in the correct pass code on the built-in alpha numeric keypad.

Checkout the range of iStorage DiskGenie products which include high speed hard disk models and SSD flash versions, with 128bit and 256bit AES high strength encryption to ensure your data security.

About the Author

Charles is an IT Security proffesional with over 10 years of corporate experience and owner of jumbo computer store.co.uk http://www.jumbocomputerstore.co.uk - Your one stop shop for IT news, reviews and the latest IT UK products.

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