w
w
w.
m
r
c
y.
c
o
m
WHITE
PAPER
Unlocking the True Value of Encryption and Key Management
Modes for Military Data Storage Applications
The hallway is dark, but his phone screen provides enough light to navigate through the corridor. He fol-
lows a map on his phone to the end of the hallway to the locked door on the right. He uses his stolen key
card and security code to unlock the door. The room is dark except for the thousands of status lights on
the rows of rackmount servers. He follows instructions received from a terrorist operative and locates the
server marked DD-46-10. He scans the server and locates a bank of encrypted solid state drives. As he be-
gins to remove the targeted storage devices, he is startled by a commanding voice ordering him to freeze.
The security officer runs towards a terminal at the end of the room to trigger a sanitization protocol that
will wipe all data from the drives. Before she can trigger the sanitization process, the intruder removes the
drives and swings the drive cartridge at her head as he prepares for escape.
He exits the same way he came in, passing by five armed guards along his route that now lay unconscious.
He meets at the rendezvous location and hands off the drives to the terrorist operative who immediately
connects one to a laptop with a SATA cable. The stolen SSD immediately shows up in the list of available
drives as "Drive D". He clicks on the drive port and sees the list of folders. That was too easy. No authen-
tication required. No brute force ATA password attack necessary. The self-encrypting SSD was not even
configured with a simple ATA password. The security team must have assumed that the physical security
at the facility would be enough to protect this sensitive data. The security officer's attempt to purge the
encryption keys failed, leaving thousands of names, pictures, locations and missions of covert operatives
in the hands of the highest bidder.
JENNIFER KEENAN, PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, MICROELECTRONICS SECURE SOLUTIONS GROUP
PHILIP FULMER, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MARKETING, ADVANCED MICROELECTRONICS SOLUTIONS GROUP
NOVEMBER 2018
