Samsung's new solid-state drive (SSD) feature built-in hardware encryption for protection against unauthorized access to information on a lost or stolen laptop.

The Samsung SSD features hardware-based self-encryption to protect confidential data from unauthorized access. This security capability is based on the Trusted Computing Group?s Opal standard and features stronger 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys. The hardware encryption is always on, and both the data encryption and user authentication are performed in the high security of the drive controller, rather than being stored in software. Software encryption performs encryption using the main CPU of the PC and stores protected data in the insecure memory of the system; in contrast, self-encrypting drives (SEDs) encrypt data at interface speed with no impact on performance within the protected hardware of the SSD.

According to Samsung's research, the company's self-encrypting SSD are showing superior performance for a system equipped with a self-encrypting SSD over others using software encryption. Test results showed that a notebook PC system equipped with a self-encrypting SSD attained a 2.4 times higher level of overall performance than an SSD with software encryption and 3.7 times higher performance level than an HDD with software encryption.

Key drive attributes include AES encryption capability extended to 256 bit keys and firmware in the drive can be securely updated. In addition, the drive is in the process of attaining FIPS 140-2 certification. FIPS 140-2 is a set of widely acknowledged cryptography requirements issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The Samsung SSD also supports a variety of management software. SSD?s self-encryption and management software work together as essential parts of a fully managed hardware-based encryption solution. Among client software that Samsung SSD supports is EMBASSY Trusted Drive Manager from Wave Systems. It provides backup and recovery for user passwords; manages advanced security settings; and enables pre-boot authentication and single sign-on to Windows.

Besides its security advantages, the Samsung SSD for corporate PCs provides sequential read/write speeds of up to 250/220 MB/s, and weighs 25 percent less than most traditional HDDs.