A $140 DES 64-bit/40bit hardware-encrypted FireWire enclosure for IDE drives is shipping in a week. The enclosure uses a USB-based key that holds the cipher. Without the key, the data on the drive is unreadable. It's an interesting approach, since it offloads the gruntwork of encrypting and decrypting onto hardware in the enclosure, and the manufacturer claims no throughput degredation. Of course, this is only secure if you lock up the keys, and don't store them with the drive. I'm kinda hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where my HDD is vulnerable to theft or instrusion and not likely to be stored with the dongle that's required to make it work (i.e., laptop-bag snatches will only be foiled you if you don't carry the key in the bag, and after you've left the key at home once or twice on a cross-continent trip, how likely are you to carry them together? Security is hard)
(via /.)
