Trusted Computing Group

Compliance is becoming a major driver for data protection technology. Nobody wants to be the front-page "data lost" story, since each incident can cost millions in fines, lost business, legal action and credibility. But the reality is that most organizations still don't protect their data adequately. A quick review of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse long list of data breaches (http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm#CP) shows the variety of enterprises facing the problem of disappearing data. The large automaker Mazda hopes to NOT be on that list.

Mazda has implemented Seagate self-encrypting drives (SEDs) managed by TCG member Wave Systems' software, for field personnel in its North American operations. These staff roam widely and rely on notebook PCs. Staff in corporate legal, finance and personnel also use notebooks that go from office to home and on the road. Mazda formerly had used software-based encryption but to satisfy a corporate mandate for more security - related to the Japanese government's regulations similar to the U.S. Sarbanes Oxley laws, the company has moved to hardware-based encryption.

Some critics of the hardware approach maintain it impacts performance and is harder to implement. Mazda appears to have found the opposite - systems work faster, there was little downtime upon initial implementation, the solutions are user-friendly, and users cannot forget to use encryption or opt out of encrption.

In the legal community, self-encrypting drives for aiding compliance are a hot topic. For more information, read "Solving the Data Security Dilemma with Self-Encrypting Drives." 

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