Rethinking the Data Encryption Approach

It is obvious that we must radically rethink our approach to data encryption.

Software only solutions, when it comes to protecting data-at-rest and authentication, is no longer state-of-the-art. Hardware based solutions, available from all PC OEMs for enterprise class PCs appears to be a securer and more streamlined approach. Native hardware based encryption runs with without a performance penalty, as is inherent to all software based encryption approaches, it also eliminates any hacking possibilty because the encryption key is never exposed, even to the OS.

Temporary data (encryption keys, passwords etc.) should no longer be stored in DRAM. These keys and certificates need to be protected in hardware. The recent DRAM attack as presented by the Princeton folks is a strong reminder that your keys are not safe with only software solution. As Seagate commented, there is theoretically any number of possibilities to lift temporary data from DRAM in software only solutions to protecting data-at-rest.

The best and really only way preventing lifting of sensitive temporary data from DRAM is simply to try and circumvent storing sensitive data in DRAM

The Seagate MOMENTUS FDE.2 native hard drive encryption approach is a simple one. This solution is available from Dell (Latitude series of notebooks), Lenovo and also from NEC Europe.

Keep the encryption key in a safe partition of the hard drive and do not make it available for the system to see.

The Seagate MOMENTUS FDE.2 does just that. It works as follows:

Users must authenticate themselves directly to the drive using a password before the drive will unlock and allow the normal OS to boot. This does not use either the BIOS or the OS to perform the authentication.

The Seagate MOMENTUS FDE.2 drive supports more secure authentication approach where the authentication to the drive is done using an alternate pre-boot OS held in a protected area of the drive, and also support new ATA security commands for Trusted Send and Trusted Receive to protect the password.

If the authentication is successful, as determined by the Seagate MOMENTUS FDE.2 drive, then the drive is unlocked and the system is allowed to boot normally.

With this solution, not only is the authentication done before any foreign software is allowed to load, the encryption keys are never exposed outside the protected hardware of the drive itself, including the user area of the drive or in the OS, which is what these attacks are exploiting.

The state of Trusted Computing

The other day the Aberdeen Group released a research paper discussing the state of Trusted Computing.

While just about all enterprise class PCs, like the Dell Latitude series, today come equipped with the necessary hardware few enterprises have actually activated the technology. Aberdeen concludes that more education about this technology needs to be made.

Trusted computing is an industry standard to make personal computers more secure through a dedicated hardware chip, called a Trusted Platform Module (TPM).

The TPM enhances the security of critical capabilities such as:

Login
Email
Web access
Protection of data

Along with the proliferation of mobile computing, electronic communication, and the sophistication of wired and wireless networks come more sophisticated attacks and an increased vulnerability of the most important asset to an enterprise — the data. Critical incidents are occurring day-by-day including identity theft, information leakage, data destruction, sensitive data exposure due to lost or stolen notebook computers and unauthorized access to corporate networks. In many countries, government legislation is mandating increased security around sensitive data for specified vertical industries. With the increased vulnerability, businesses and consumers are also demanding a computing environment that is more trusted, private, safe and secure.

The technical industry is responding to the challenge raised by these issues with standards-based security solutions specified by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). At the lowest level, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) protects secrets in hardware that would otherwise be vulnerable in software.

Why Trusted Computing will be ubiquitous...

Steven Sprague wrote a compelling essay about the benefits of Trusted Computing. It is truly astonishing how little is understood and how numerous wrong statements are made, still today.