CNET is reporting that Toshiba will soon be launching a brand new line of hard drives which can either delete or protect data if the drive ends up in the wrong hands. Scott Wright, a product manager of storage devices at Toshiba, said "digital systems vendors recognize the need to help their customers protect sensitive data from leakage or theft, Toshiba"s security technologies provide designers of copiers, printers, PCs, and other systems with new capabilities to help address these important security concerns."
The new collection of drives, featuring AES 256bit encryption, will contain technology which is able to "detect if the drive is connected to an unknown and undefined computer or other system." If that scenario is detected then the data can either be locked down so the user is unable to view it or the whole drive can be totally wiped. The article reports that the technology can be applied to "specific data on the drive" and that the user will be able to "choose how and when to render the data indecipherable".
While these hard drives may not be aimed at home users, governments and corporations may find them to be a valuable tool to protect sensitive information and stop it from being seen by those without authorisation. The MKxx61GSYS SATA family of drives, ranging from 160GB up to 640GB, will be based on specifications from the Trusted Computing Group which tells companies how data should be protected at an enterprise level.