TCG launches Storage certification program and specification

Test Cases to Ensure Compliance and Interoperability

PORTLAND, Ore., March 27, 2018 – Trusted Computing Group (TCG) today announced the availability of its storage certification program for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) based on TCG specifications.

The compliance tests, based on the TCG Storage Opal SSC: Test Cases Specification, will ensure that storage devices, storage security software vendors and compliance test suite vendors are compliant and interoperable with TCG’s Opal Security Subsystem Class (SSC) versions 2.00 and 2.01, which define minimum functionality for SEDs.

The program also will include a security evaluation based on the U.S. government-approved Protection Profile “collaborative Protection Profile for Full Drive Encryption – Encryption Engine Version 2.0.”

TCG will publish and maintain a list of certified products. The test suite and security evaluation are available. All products evaluated must demonstrate exact compliance to the applicable Opal test cases and to the Protection Profile(s). TCG will continue to investigate additional test cases and protection requirements for drive security.

Today, almost all solid state storage devices and enterprise storage systems support the TCG SED specifications, which enable data to be encrypted at the drive level. This encryption is always on and requires no user intervention, nor does it slow system performance. SEDs can be instantly erased by administrators to make re-use or disposal efficient and to prevent data loss.

“TCG storage certification is key in ensuring SED compliance with TCG specifications,” said Joseph Chen, vice president of engineering at ULINK Technology. “We are proud to offer certification solutions with our industry-leading test software and test house facility. We believe that TCG certification will encourage the computing industry to adopt Opal SED secure storage devices.”

"WinMagic is excited to see the introduction of TCG's new storage certification program. As a contributing member of both the TCG Storage Work Group and the Common Criteria Full Drive Encryption (FDE) international Technical Community (iTC), we are confident that the assurances of Opal certification provide for both operational and security compliance and will result in tremendous benefits for our customers," said Garry McCracken, CISSP and vice president, technology, WinMagic, Inc.

For more information on the SED certification program, contact the Certification Program manager, certification@trustedcomputinggroup.org.

About TCG

TCG is a not-for-profit organization formed to develop, define and promote open, vendor-neutral, global industry specifications and standards, supportive of a hardware-based root of trust, for interoperable trusted computing platforms. More information is available at www.trustedcomputinggroup.org. Follow TCG on Twitter and on LinkedIn

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