Toshiba unveils auto-wipe hard drives

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 10 Aug 2010 at 10:20

Nervous administrators worried about data leakage have a new tool in their arsenal following the launch of Toshiba's Wipe technology.

Wipe instantly clears the data from drives by invalidating the security key when the power supply is turned off or the HDD is removed from the system.

Lost or stolen notebooks are not the only security risk that IT departments must address

Such a feature could be used to prevent data from being stolen off of printer or copier drives or from returned leased systems, Toshiba said.

"Lost or stolen notebooks are not the only security risk that IT departments must address," the company said.

"Today, most office copier and printing systems use HDDs and many organisations are now realising the critical importance of maintaining the security of document image data stored within copier and printer systems."

Set to be rolled out in the company's self-encrypting hard drives, Toshiba said Wipe would first arrive in its upcoming 2.5" 7200rpm SED HDD model, and should address a growing need for IT departments to comply with privacy and data protection law.

However, it is unclear at this stage how any facility for recovering data mistakenly locked might work.