Samsung comes clean with self-encrypting SSDs

It seems that Dell jumped the gun a wee bit by shedding some light on Samsung's forthcoming self-encrypting SSDs, but now Sammy is providing us with all the missing details... er, most of them, anyway. In conjunction with Wave Systems, Samsung is launching what it calls an industry first with its new line of solid state drives. Said devices are able to automatically encrypt information as it's saved to the drive, and they each come bundled with Wave's EMBASSY management software. At least initially, these super secure SSDs will ship in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB flavors, and while we're told that the whole lot is available now "through at least one major OEM," there's no specific mention of price. Shocker, we know. The full release is after the break.

Full Disk Encryption Comes to Solid State Drives

Samsung and Wave Offer Today's Mobile Professionals the Best Performance and Standards-Based Security in the Industry's First Self-Encrypting Solid State Drive (SSD)

Lee, MA and San Jose, CA-April 16, 2009-Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., have collaborated to give professionals on the go the ultimate in hard drive security. Along with blazing speed, ultra-fast boot-up and silent operation, Samsung's new self-encrypting SSDs automatically encrypt information as it's saved to the drive, an industry first for SSDs.

Full disk encryption (FDE) has already been adopted as a standard feature available in many commercial laptop and desktop systems with hard disk drives. Samsung self-encrypting drives – 256-, 128- and 64-gigabyte SSDs – provide FDE bundled with Wave's EMBASSY® management software and are now available through at least one major OEM.

"Samsung has combined the tremendous performance advantages of solid state technology with integrated hardware encryption for drives designed especially for today's 'road warrior' professionals," said Jim Elliott, memory vice president, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "Business users now get the best of performance and security in a single drive. "

Solid state drives offer numerous advantages over traditional platter hard drives. SSD performance is not impacted by FDE, a drawback frequently seen with today's HDDs that use software FDE. Also, because they have no moving parts and are based around flash memory, the SSDs are far less prone to reliability issues caused by bumps and bounces from normal notebook PC use, and from excessive heat generation. They additionally boast two to five times faster overall performance, including boot-up time and application launching, as well as longer battery life in notebook PCs. Samsung self-encrypting SSDs will be available in both 1.8" and 2.5" form factors; the 1.8" being the world's first encrypted storage drive of this size. Flash memory also retains data even when the power is turned off, enabling "near-instant" turn on for the user's system, and they don't require "spin up" time that drains batteries.

Samsung's new 256GB, 128GB, and 64GB SSDs are the first solid state drives to incorporate hardware-based encryption, which has made headlines in recent weeks with publication of the industry's Opal storage specification published by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). Benefits of hardware encryption over today's software-only encryption approaches include faster performance, better security and an "always on" feature. Because encryption keys and access credentials are generated and stored within the drive hardware, they never leave its confines and are never held in the operating system or by application software. This hardware FDE approach is considered more secure and less complex to manage.

"Samsung is breaking new ground in performance and security with its solid state FDE drives," said Steven Sprague, Wave's president and CEO. "Whether it's with cars or computers, many people will always demand the very best in performance and Samsung is delivering on that promise. With self-encrypting drives, users have the peace of mind that whatever's on the drive-credit card numbers, medical records, sensitive personal data or intellectual property is always protected."

Each Samsung self-encrypting SSD, when ordered in a new computer, now comes bundled with Wave's EMBASSY® Trusted Drive Manager for complete life cycle management of the drive including pre-boot authentication to the drive and enrolling drive administrators and users. Trusted Drive Manager also enables the backup of drive credentials.

Available separately, Wave's EMBASSY® Remote Administration Server allows an IT administrator to remotely turn on each solid state drive in seconds and provides detailed event logs for compliance to prove that the security settings were in place when a loss or theft occurs. Plus, Wave's single management server solution can provide streamlined administration and policy management capable of supporting all commercially available TPMs and FDE drives (as well as Opal-compliant drives now in development), along with SafeNet's ProtectDriveTM software FDE. Because encryption is turned on "out of the box," there is generally no learning curve for the end user or IT support staff.

About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two main business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

About Wave Systems Corp.
Wave provides software to help solve critical enterprise PC security challenges such as strong authentication, data protection, network access control and the management of these enterprise functions. Wave is a pioneer in hardware-based PC security and a founding member of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a consortium of nearly 140 PC industry leaders that forged open standards for hardware security. Wave's EMBASSY® line of client- and server-side software leverages and manages the security functions of the TCG's industry standard hardware security chip, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). TPMs are included on tens of millions of PCs and are standard equipment on many enterprise-class PCs shipping today. Using TPMs and Wave software, enterprises can substantially and cost-effectively strengthen their current security solutions. For more information about Wave and its solutions, visit http://www.wave.com.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the statements of historical fact, the information presented herein constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include general economic and business conditions, the ability to fund operations, the ability to forge partnerships required for deployment, changes in consumer and corporate buying habits, chip development and production, the rapid pace of change in the technology industry and other factors over which Wave Systems Corp. has little or no control. Wave Systems assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.