Intel 320-series SSD and FDE (Full Disk Encryption) questions...

[idata]

I am considering to buy a couple of new solid state drives for my company. A requirement is FDE and according to some info I found the new 320 series should support this. I have a few questions:

1. As far as I know none of our computers have any support in BIOS for disk password. Is this required for FDE to work with the 320 series or how exactly does the encyption / password entry work?

2. If we would like to use a RAID configuration (RAID 0 striping) is it still possible to use FDE and if so do one have to enter a password for each disk?

3. What about using two disks in the samer computer (non-raid) that is used to dual boot two different operating systems (say Linux and Windows 7) installed one OS on each drive - does FDE work in this case and would one have to enter a password twice?

4. Is the FDE solution dependent on some support in the OS (in that case what OS does it work with) or is it independent?

5. Do you have some white paper about the FDE with for instance information about how much slower it is compared to a non FDE drive?

6. I have read that TRIM does not work with SSDs in RAID configuration. Is this still the case and how dependent is the 320-series of TRIM?

/Trist

CORRECTION : I just found that our Dell Precision M6500 computers do have a field in the BIOS for disk password so I am interested in the questions above (two disks in the machine with or without RAID) also for this configuration. How do I know if the 320-serias FDE is compatible with the disk password setting in the dell M6500 machines? Is there a standard for this that all BIOS manufacturers follows or??

[idata]

Let's just cut to the chase:

Which of the recently released Intel desktop motherboards support the ATA Password feature.

[idata]

Lets cut the security thing also:

Are 320-series SSDs FIPS 140-x certified?

I would really appreciate Security Policy Documents from Intel directly.

This is how it looks in case of other manufacturers:

http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp1299.pdf http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp1299.pdf

[idata]

Why isn't Intel answering our question?

[idata]

The thing is that we have some precedences from the past which indicate that the drive could support internal AES128 encryption along with ATA password and NOT be more secure against thieves than conventional typical hdd.It is worth to addmit that ATA password could be set on any drive supporting Security ATA Extension Feature Set and most of the devices available today allow that.

All SandForce 12xx equipped drives offer internal AES128 and at the same time OCZ officially states that in his Vertex2 both mechanisms: ATA pass and AES128 are chained which means that if someone will broke any (whichever) of these two protections the whole security is defeated.

This is unacceptable considering how easy is to broke ATA password. The manufacturers used to save them in plain text (sic) on the firmware areas of their drives. They are not even hashed !!

So the whole matter is not a made up problem.

Clarifications are required.

We all are deeply interested in intel's new 320 series drives and some of us want to use them in the environment which requires security. And before making purchase decision we have to be sure that the confidential data of our firms could not be as easy to retrieve from stolen devices as in the case of competitive products.

Wrong thinking that you are secure is much worse then not being secured at all.

[idata]

I believe that the ATA password and the disk encryption system are two totally separate items. All data written to the SSD is encrypted by the disk controller. It operates transparently without any user input. It is also completely useless you can restrict access to the SSD. Setting an ATA password is the key. ATA passwords are well known to be hardware crackable but only if the disk is unencrypted. If the disk is encrypted then the password cannot be recovered. Does the Intel 320 store the ATA password in encrypted form? Presumably it does. If this is indeed the case then data stored on the SSD will be secure.

However, there are two ATA passwords, User and Master. Some computer's BIOS only allow you to set the User password. The manufacturer-set Master password is not accessable. Anyone that knows the manufacturers password will be able to access your data (they may be only able to delete it, depending on whether the ATA security level is set to High or Maximum, a setting you probably do not have access to). Without being able to set a Master password your data is not secure.

The operative words in what I wrote are the first two, I believe. I only believe that what I wrote is correct I don't know for sure. Only Intel can come up with the answers to the questions this topic has asked.

Lew