Page 12 - Security Today, May/June 2021

Working from Home
It is here to stay; why an encrypted-SSD upgrade makes sense at home
BTy Keith Schimmenti
here is no way to downplay how COVID-19 has af- fected the way we live, do business and educate our children. One year into it, and the end is still nebu- lously off in the distance. Although, what was once not even a pinhole-sized visible light of hope in a vast sea
of darkness is now shining bright and growing thanks to many efforts. Yet, as often happens, out of challenging times comes inno- vative thought and new ways of doing things. And COVID has
brought about some meaningful changes to our lives.
While we may have blindly hit upon these eventually, COV- ID-19 raised the urgency and, as it has so many times in the past, humanity has stepped up to the plate. While maybe not knocking it out of the park, we certainly haven’t struck out. Things such as telemedicine, video conferencing and food delivery will be around
long past our return to normalcy—however that is redefined. COVID-19 has dramatically changed how some jobs are per- formed with more people working from home (WFH). According to a recent Gallup Panel1, 56% of U.S. workers continue working all or part of the time remotely to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19. The Gallup Panel asked people if their employer left the deci- sion up to them, would they prefer to return to the office like be- fore the pandemic or work remotely as much as possible once re- strictions were lifted? If remotely, was the reason that they prefer working at home, or was it fear of the virus? Forty-four percent said they would continue working remotely because they enjoyed it; 17% preferred to continue remotely because of fear of the vi-
rus; and 39% preferred returning to the office.
One way or another, it appears a sizeable amount of the work-
force will switch to WFH permanently once we bid adieu to COV- ID-19. That would make now an excellent time to upgrade the stor-
Figure 1
age on your personal or company’s existing desktop PC or laptop by switching from its old hard-disk drive (HDD) to a newer, faster, more reliable and more secure encrypted solid-state drive (SSD).
Whether you are a business or government agency or an indi- vidual, there is one thing that is absolutely vital if your employ- ees are working or preparing to work from home that is the need to secure important company, personal and private information. Data protection is an absolute essential. The monetary costs and reputational exposure due to data breaches, hacking and lost or stolen laptops are astronomical. The penalties enacted through governmental legislation via HIPAA, CCPA and GDPR can cause irreparable harm if personally identifiable information (PII) is lost.
Users with both HDDs and SSDs can benefit from upgrading their internal storage to an encrypted SSD drive – both perfor- mance and security can be increased for the computers your em- ployees are using at home. So, with that in mind, if you are going to upgrade your computer or laptop with a new SSD, make sure it includes encryption.
Here are a few encryption methods to look for.
AES 256-Bit Encryption. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric encryption algorithm (this means that the encryption and decryption keys are the same). AES is known as a symmetric “block cipher,” where data is divided into 128-bit blocks before be- ing scrambled with a 256-bit key. AES 256-bit encryption is an in- ternational standard and is recognized by the government, among others. AES-256 encryption is said to be unbreakable, as the num- ber of possible combinations is 2256, or 2 x 2 x 2 256 times, making it the strongest and best-known encryption standard available.
TCG Opal 2.0. This protocol can initialize, authenticate and manage encrypted SSDs by using independent software vendors
FEATURE
SSD
HDD
Design
• uses NAND flash, a type of non-volatile storage technology that does not require power to retain data
• has no moving parts
• based on magnetic spinning platters, a technology in use since the mid-1950s
• data is written to and read from these spinning platters or disks via moving heads
Durability/reliability
• with no moving parts, there is less heat, higher reliability
• better suited to handle drops, shakes, shocks and everyday
wear and tear, making them less apt to experience data loss
• legacy design that is more prone to mechanical failures and failures due to environmental conditions, such as heat, cold, shock and vibration breakdown over time
Performance
• 10 to 30 times faster than HDDs
• high performance means faster boot time, faster data
transfers and higher responsiveness
• faster speeds mean SSDs can handle data at the fast speeds
necessary in today’s especially when running programs that access large amounts of data, such as an operating system
Power/energy efficiency
• with no moving parts, uses less power to operate
• moving parts require more power to operate
Weight/noise
• smaller size allows SSDs to weigh less than larger HDDs;
• compact design perfect for laptops, tablets and other small
electronic devices
• absence of moving parts makes SSDs infinitely quieter
• weighs more as a result of larger size due to magnetic heads and metallic disks;
• noise and vibrations from moving parts can be very distracting
Size/Form Factors
• 1.0”, 1.8”, and 2.5” sizes
• variety of form factors: 2.5”, mSATA, M.2, PCIe • may use SATA, SAS or USB connections
• 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5” sizes uses PATA, SATA, USB, or SAS cables
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ENCRYPTION