You won't care if you lose these Samsung encrypted flash drives

Flash memory storage devices are a convenient way to transfer data from place to place, but they’re also a big security risk if lost. Today, Samsung Electronics and Wave Systems are launching new flash memory drives that can encrypt data automatically.

If you lose a lot of flash drives while traveling, this solution is better than having to tell the boss that you lost a bunch of sensitive data.

The self-encrypting solid state drives (SSDs, as the flash-based replacements for hard disks are called) can encrypt data as it is saved to the storage device. Full disk encryption, as it is called, has been a standard feature in many commercial laptops and desktops with hard disks. Now Samsung will include the capability with drives ranging in capacity from 64 gigabytes to 256 gigabytes.

Wave Systems of Lee, Mass., provides the Embassy management software used to manage the encryption process. The good thing about using encryption on SSDs is that the encryption process doesn’t slow down the drive’s ability to fetch data. That’s a major drawback on hard disk drives.

Wave’s Embassy Remote Administration Server allows a tech admininistrator to remotely access a drive’s status if it is lost or stolen. Samsung competes in the SSD market with Fusion-io, SanDisk, Intel, Seagate, Mtron, Solidata, STEC & Texas Memory.

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