Seagate Notebook Drive Gets NSA Nod

Seagate's self-encrypting Momentus 5400 FDE.2 notebook hard drive has been certified by the National Security Agency for use on U.S. government computers.

It seems like every week brings a news story about a stolen laptop exposing thousands (or millions) of citizens to possible fraud and identity theft because—believe it or not—government employees were carrying around tons of personal data on notebook computers that somehow turn up missing. Two years ago, personal records of over 26 million veterans were exposed by the theft of a notebook computer from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Although it may not offer any comfort to folks who’ve already had their information compromised—whether they know it or not—the U.S.’s official cryptologic and “it’s so secret we can’t talk about it” organization, the National Security Agency, has officially certified Seagate’s self-encrypting Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive for notebooks used by U.S. government agencies and their contractors.

The Momentus 5400 FDE.2 drive uses hardware-based full-speed encryption technology with multi-factor user authentication that help secure data stored on the drive from unauthorized access. The drives use AES encryption to protect all drive information, and make the drives easier to repurpose or retire without compromising sensitive information—delete the drive’s encryption key, and its entire contents become inaccessible. The drive authenticates a user before a computer boots into its operating system, preventing would-be data thieves from removing the drive from a notebook and accessing the data using a different system.

“The qualification bears undeniable witness to the tremendous strength of the Seagate Secure portfolio of self-encrypting disk drives in protecting sensitive information for government, private enterprises and consumers alike,” said the VP of Seagate’s personal storage business unit, Tom Major, in a statement.