AES 256-bit encryption on Fujitsu hard drives
Found on CNet News on Sunday, 20 April 2008
The new 2.5" 7,200RPM SATA hard disk drive (HDD) incorporates the AES-256 encryption standard at the hardware level without the need for additional software.
The new Fujitsu drive performs its encryption entirely within the BIOS during power on. Encryption performed within the BIOS prevents the keys from being stored in the clear anywhere on the drive.
According to Fujitsu, "the key used to encrypt and decrypt data is cryptographically regenerated at power-on, and is not known even to the HDD when the system is powered off."
Now I admit that I haven't put much thought into this comment, but the article made me raise an eyebrow. First of all, the key isn't stored on the system when you use any decent system. Otherwise, encryption would be so easy to break and you would not have to remember passwords. And even this drive needs to ask you for your password, or it would just boot for up anybody. So I don't really see the great advantage over preboot encryption system like e.g. Truecrypt.