When it comes to flash drives, all we know is that storage capacity counts. But as far as SanDisk Cruzer is concerned, adding malware protection to help safeguard data seems to have caught the eye of Network Products Guide for its new found innovation. In fact, Sandisk Cruzer Secure USB drives have copped the 2009 Product Innovation award for its unique portable device.

The new features are very much welcome by users these days as we are all aware of security breaches when it comes to portable media that helps us carry our data anywhere. And for addressing that need, Sandisk Corporation gets lauded for this new important feature. The award recognizes vendors from all over the world whose innovative products bring essential changes to the information technology industry.

SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise secure USB drives help businesses mitigate the risk of data loss by imposing mandatory, hardware-based encryption on all files along with password protection to safeguard data stored on company-issued drives.

Cruzer Enterprise with McAfee Malware Protection extends these security defenses with automatic, device-resident malware scanning that prevents malware from attaching itself to the portable drive and in turn, infecting the internal enterprise host.

(Source) Press

Tags: Accessories, cop, encryption, information technology industry, innovative products, internal enterprise, new features, Portable Devices, product innovation award, risk, safeguard, SanDisk, sandisk corporation, sandisk cruzer, security breaches, storage capacity, USB drives

Need protection when using your hard drives? Well than we have something new to play with from Hitachi. It’s the third generation 2.5 inch Travelstar hard drive, the Travelstar 5K500.B. It’s a SATA II drive that only spins at 5400rpm and it comes in capacities from 120GB to 500GB. Want it? There’s more!

The HDD designed for notebooks will consume less juice than usual while the enterprise version will get you the Enhanced Availability which will give 24 hours a day high-speed activity. The new drives will be eco-friendlier than the previous versions and it will come in halogen-free design.

And the Bulk Data Encryption is the encryption was talking about. With it on board your information will be scrambled with help of a key and it’s written to the disk. Unscrambling is simple as the same key is being used. Should the data encryption key be deleted the data will become useless. Make sure you order the BDE since it’s an optional feature.

We don’t have any prices and we still need availability dates. The general idea is that Hitachi is going to launch the new HDD some time next month.

via Crave

Tags: Desktop PCs, encryption, HDD, hitachi, Laptops, Mobile News

SanDisk announced a new 2-factor authentication technology stored in its Cruzer Enterprise line-up of USB Flash drives. The drive is managed by SanDisk’s CMC (Central Management and Control) server software, enabling IT departments to provision and monitor flash drives. The Cruzer drives also contain RSA SecurID software tokens for a two-phase authentication for remote/mobile network access.

The Cruzer drives offer additional security through the use of 256-bit AES encryption, as well as requiring users to create a complex password during the initial set-up. The flash drives are available in 1, 2, 4 and 8GB capacities with a claimed 24 MB/s read speed and write up to 20 MB/s.

via press release

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Tags: aes, encryption, flash drive, Portable Devices, rsa, securid, security, token, usb

Seagate announced its 1 terabyte monster desktop hard drive with built-in government-grade encryption. Calling it the strongest security available for desktop PCs, the Barracuda FDE - Full Disk Encryption - hard drive is the world’s first 3.5 inch desktop hard drive with native encryption to prevent data theft.

Thanks to AES encryption, the Barracuda FDE delivers security for powered-down systems. The interesting part is that logging back on requires you to enter a pre-boot user password. Assuming that users are smart enough to reset any default password, this gives you a better sense of security. I don’t know about you, but it does to me. With capacities up to 1 TB, the 7200 rpm drive is ideal for your home or office needs.

The Barracuda FDE is based on Seagate’s DriveTrust technology, the drives are easy to install and operate. Drive-level security means that there’s no need for additional patches, updates or upgrades. Of course, you will have to wait just a few more months. The drive will be officially launched some time in 2008. No word on the pricing yet.

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Tags: 1TB, barracuda, Desktop PCs, encryption, hard drive, HDD, seagate, security