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]

Yeah, I went for the Seagate "old style" hard drive. I'm just not trusting this Intel SSD when it comes to security. They did try to clear up some of the confusion but it is still far too unclear to base a purchase decision on. For me at least:)

[idata]

Truecrypt on Linux definitely supports TRIM passthrough, and will not have a negative impact on performance or wear-leveling (but the use of TRIM may limit some plausible deniability featuers of truecrypt.)

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=trim-operation http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=trim-operation

I am not sure if Truecrypt for Windows supports TRIM passthrough; BitLocker does.

[idata]

Questions for Intel / SSDelightful,

- Does Intel 320 contain any mechanism or weakness that would allow access to AES-encrypted data (encrypted using ATA Password) on the drive with less effort than brute-force attack against the ATA Password?

- What algorithm Intel 320 uses to hash the ATA Password before it is stored as a hash to the drive?- What procedure can be used to test that the ATA Password based AES-encryption is indeed internally enabled / working?

Thank you,

Dude320

[idata]

Question for Intel:

I have a Sony VGN-SZ670N laptop which has the BIOS Master and User password feature. By having this feature, can I assume that the laptop supports Secure-ATA commands and will work properly with the encryption feature of the Intel Series 320 SSD? By setting the Master and User passwords, can I assume that the passwords will be hashed/encrypted and stored on the SSD and used as expected?

Also, is there any way to tell of Secure-ATA is supported on my laptop?

Thanks.

[idata]

BIOS master and user passwords usually do not have anything to do with ATA password support. Intel can't help you on this, check the manual or ask Sony.

The BIOS does not have any say in how the password if stored on the ATA device, so as long as ATA password is supported and you trust Intel's implementation you're good.