IBM has announced a combination of encryption technology and services to improve security and privacy. The centerpiece of the solution is the introduction of the industry’s first fully encrypting data drive… The open-standards-based drive is designed to protect the data in the event that it is lost or stolen, rendering it unreadable to anyone who finds it… It will also provide customers with the ability to share encrypted tapes with their business partners. The TS1120 Tape Drive utilizes public key cryptography, although it is not clear if it would make use of existing enterprise PKI or not. It seems to use PKI built into the IBM z/OS operating system. Key management is handled by the IBM Encryption Key Manager for[…]
Category: hardware
I am a fan of used cell phones, they are great for travel overseas, cheaper, and do the trick (make and receive phone calls). I read this the other day and it caught my eye. As cell phones become more advanced we business-types and teeny-boppers use our mobile to do all sorts of things. Store phone numbers yes. But what about text messages, notes, documents…perhaps credit card number or other sensitive information? I’m sure that many, many, people have texted their credit card numbers to family members. “Hi honey, could you buy this with the AMEX? I’ll text you the number…” A company, Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 phones on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it[…]
You lock your house, car, and desk at night. But how many of us lock our laptops up? We’ve seen and heard a string of recent laptop thefts, leading to major “privacy” breaches. After a few recent high-profile arrests, it makes me wonder, what were the thieves after? Seems that in many cases they were after the hardware, and didn’t know a thing or two about decrypting hard drives. Now I know, they could go on to sell these items to folks who knew how to crack such security measures, but our innocent laptops don’t have to be put in this situation to begin with. Companies spend lots of money to buy locks for everything else, why not laptops? An[…]
In this InfoWorld article, researchers have disclosed that they were able to breach a laptop through a buggy wireless card driver. “You don’t have to necessarily be connected for these device driver flaws to come into play,” [Jon] Ellch [a student at the U.S. Naval postgraduate school in Monterey, California] said. “Just because your wireless card is on and looking for a network could be enough.” Personally I’m surprised this hasn’t happened earlier. Gives you a good reason to leave that wireless radio turned off when you don’t need it.
I found a nice little cryptographic token that does some things that most users want, but some products don’t offer. The Authenex A-Key is a hardware token with some features that managers and users can be happy with. One great feature is that the device software and drivers are run off of the device itself, so users can go from machine to machine and not have to worry about installing stuff. Not to mention: All of the cryptographic functions are done on-board the token. Currently inline with FIPS 140-2 and validation is pending in the next few months. The list goes on, but it’s a pretty nice product that does what most people will need it to do and is[…]
This article discusses how cars are moving more and more toward completely keyless systems with the entire security of the car based in its software. Sophisticated thieves with laptops and the appropriate know-how can steal a car with 20 minutes of wireless access to it. This seems like a solution in search of a problem. Why exactly are keyless ignition systems a good idea? Sure, my car could probably be hotwired in far less than 20 minutes, but at least someone has to get into my car to do that. Allowing cars ignition systems to be accessed using wireless technology makes them more difficult to defend from theft.