by Duane Craig

Created on: July 09, 2010   Last Updated: November 29, 2010

Hardware full disk encryption has been around many years and software options for encrypting a hard drive are now also widely available. That makes this type of data security well within reach of most small and medium sized businesses. While full disk encryption can also be used on desktops, it is widely deployed on mobile assets because they are stolen and lost more often. 

Full disk encryption also offers security for drives that have been decommissioned and are no longer in use, and it can help satisfy some requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) in its efforts to reduce risks throughout the payment chain with its Data Security Standard (DSS).

According to an article by Serdar Yegulalp, senior editor for Information Week, full disk encryption software encrypts the operating system partition. From then on, whether the system is in use or not, the drive is encrypted and unreadable without the key. The user provides the key at boot-up. In some cases this might include inserting a USB device containing the key into the USB port, and providing a password, or providing a password and a fingerprint. Other options include using a security token along with one other identification technique. This two-step process is called two-factor authentication. After that, the user operates the system as normal.

Loss and theft of laptops exposes companies to much more than the physical loss of the equipment. As the numbers of laptops deployed and disk size increases, there is more data at risk. More than 51 percent of IT professionals surveyed by Ponemon Institute think laptop data is far more valuable than the equipment itself, and almost half of those said their organizations lost more than 10 laptops during the previous year. 

The proliferation of removable storage devices adds another layer of security concerns and another place where full disk encryption (FDE) offers some control for small and medium sized businesses. Companies that want very comprehensive data security for mobile assets could use data loss protection (DLP) solutions with remote wipe software and FDE, but many must choose just one because of budget and/or support constraints. In that case, according to Ernie Hayden, CISSP, CEH, founder and owner of 443 Consulting, LLC, the best choice is the one that addresses the highest risk in the easiest way. For that he recommended FDE in one of his security expert answers at Tech Target’s SearchSecurity site.

It is

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>