Origin Storage ships DataLocker drive with government-grade encryption

Storage hardware manufacturer Origin Storage today announced that its latest portable hard drive has been certified as secure enough for use by the military and government.

The firm said that its 1TB DataLocker Enterprise v2.0 had been awarded a FIPS 140-2 validation certificate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

This means that the portable hard drive meets government and military standards for data encryption.

The drive supports the MAC OS, as well as Windows, Linux and Unix, and could find favour among those government departments, institutions and local bodies that have been fined for losing data on poorly protected USB devices and hard drives.

"Government and business leaders are seeking assurance that their data is encrypted, particularly when it comes to portable storage media," said Lance Melber, chief executive of Origin's Data Locker business.

"FIPS validation offers that assurance, demonstrating that DataLocker provides tested, proven data encryption. Our secure external hard drive gives customers peace of mind that their data is safe in the hands of mobile employees."

The DataLocker drives include 256-bit AES encryption at the device level, which can protect data against loss or theft. Origin Storage said that all management was carried out at the device level, and the drives include a touchscreen display for direct password entry.

The touch display also randomises its keypad, meaning that passwords cannot be harvested by "shoulder surfing" the user.

The drives can support up to 1TB of data, meaning that large amounts of information can be transported easily, cheaply and, most importantly, securely.

Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office has already handed out fines to local authorities in excess of £300,000 for poor data handling practices.