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Self-Encrypting Drives: Security for Every System

Self-Encrypting Drives: Security for Every System
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Intel and the Ponemon Institute made headlines in 2009 when the research and analysis firm studied 138 lost notebook cases and determined that the average cost to an enterprise of a stolen notebook was $49,246. Fewer people caught the October 2010 follow-up to this study, “The Billion Dollar Lost Laptop Problem.” Ponemon expanded its net to 329 companies, which suffered an average economic loss of $6.4 million each from lost laptops. That’s bad enough news, but buried in the report’s data were a few extremely interesting data points:

·         Total lost laptops not encrypted: 60,518

·         Not encrypted carrying confidential data: 27,838

·         Average cost of lost laptops not encrypted: $56,165

·         Total encrypted lost laptops: 25,937

·         Encrypted carrying confidential data: 11,931

·         Average cost of encrypted lost laptops: $37,443

We see two key take-aways here. First, the average economic impact of not encrypting a laptop is almost $20,000. Second, while we can’t say that unencrypted laptops are more likely to be stolen than encrypted ones (self-encrypting drives still trail non-encrypting models in unit sales, so the odds are that any random theft would more likely be of a non-encrypting laptop), it makes sense that a thief, if given a choice, would target a non-encrypted laptop.

Intel’s efforts in bringing this data to light, along with the company’s work in bolstering enterprise client PC security, have given a needed boost to the self-encrypting drive (SED) market. Despite the fact that Seagate debuted its first-generation SEDs in 2005, the product category has been sluggish in overcoming initial hurtles. In part, this stems from negative perceptions about product performance.