ASI First to Build Laptops with Seagate's Encrypted Hard Drive

Published: March 14, 2007

by Alex Woodie

ASI Computer Technologies will be the first computer maker to include Seagate Technology's new encrypted hard drive, the companies announced yesterday. Seagate's new 160 GB hard drive will be featured in a new business laptop ASI plans to start selling next month.

Next to losing a backup tape, losing a laptop is one of the best ways to compromise huge amounts of sensitive data in one fell swoop. Since January 2005, there have been more than 120 reports of lost or stolen laptops at American companies, schools, governments, and other organizations, putting the private information of millions of people at risk, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which tracks such things.

Such sobering statistics are driving IT professionals to adopt encryption as a way to stop identity thieves and other criminals from profiting from unauthorized use of private data. While Microsoft offers encryption as an option with higher-end versions of the new Windows Vista operating system, there hasn't been a laptop computer that includes a hard drive with encryption permanently turned on by default.

That is changing with Seagate's new Momentus 5400 FDE.2 (Full Disc Encryption) hard drive, which ships with AES 128-bit encryption to encrypt all information to hit the drive, transparently and automatically. The 5400 FDE.2 is a 2.5 inch drive that offers 160GB of capacity spinning at 5,400 RPM, and features a 3 GBps SATA interface.

ASI, a boutique manufacturer of laptops, servers, storage, and other IT gear, will offer the drive in its new ASI C8015 whitebook system, which could ship as early as April. The C8015 will come with Wave Systems' security software to simplify the setup and configuration of the encrypted hard drives, and biometric fingerprint scanners for stronger user authentication.

Because all information on the hard drive is encrypted by default, users won't have to worry about protecting specific files, folders, or partitions. If the laptop should get lost or stolen, the data--indeed, the entire computer--would be inaccessible without positive authentication. ASI plans to target the new computer to audiences requiring strong data storage, including the healthcare, legal, and finance industries, and the government.

"Computer security is a growing concern for all of our channel customers, though fear of stolen laptops is especially acute," said Kent Tibbils, ASI senior director of platform technologies and marketing. "And for good reason: the theft of intellectual property, customer information and other precious content stored on laptops can cost organizations dearly in legal remedies and customer retention, to say nothing of the considerable cost of restoring one's good name."

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