The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) published the full report of a survey it commissioned to examine IT practitioners’ use of and feelings toward Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs).
Perceptions about Self-Encrypting Drives: A Study of IT Practitioners can be downloaded from the TCG’s web site.
For more information visit: www.trustedcomputinggroup.org
Unedited press release follows:
Majority of Respondents in Ponemon Study Agree Self-Encrypting Drives Less Expensive to Own and More Secure Than Software-Based Encryption for Data at Rest
Trusted Computing Group and Ponemon Institute Release Full Report of New Study Examining the Usage of Hardware-Based Encrypting Drives
PORTLAND, Ore.–Trusted Computing Group (TCG) and Ponemon Institute today released a full report of the study “Perceptions about Self-Encrypting Drives: A Study of IT Practitioners.” The report can be viewed at http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/resources/ponemon_sed_survey_report.
The study interviewed 517 IT practitioners in financial services, the public sector, retailing, healthcare, technology and other fields who were familiar with self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Respondents believed that hardware-based encryption, including self-encrypting drives, is more secure than software alternatives. Fifty-three percent of respondents noted that lower costs were important features for self-encrypting drives.
The survey also revealed that 41 percent currently use a combination of hardware and software encryption. Those using hardware encryption believed it did not impact user productivity, nor was it more difficult to implement.
The report notes that more than half of the respondents encrypt data to comply with state or federal data protection laws, with almost half using it to satisfy internal compliance requirements.
IT users in the study also said that performance and ease of deployment were the most important features for encryption. Faster setup time, enhanced scalability of SEDs and improved system performance due to offloading encryption from the host processor to the drive were noted as benefits of SEDs compared to software encryption.
A summary and presentation on the survey from Dr. Larry Ponemon, Ponemon Institute, also are available at http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/media_room/events/past_events.
Trusted Computing Group
The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) provides open standards that enable a safer computing environment across platforms and geographies. Benefits of Trusted Computing include protection of business-critical data and systems, secure authentication and strong protection of user identities, and the establishment of strong machine identity and network integrity. Organizations using built-in, widely available trusted hardware and applications reduce their total cost of ownership. TCG technologies also provide regulatory compliance that is based upon trustworthy hardware. More information and the organization’s specifications and work groups are available at the Trusted Computing Group’s website, www.trustedcomputinggroup.org. Follow TCG on Twitter and on LinkedIn.