WinMagic Supports Intel Anti-Theft Technology

WinMagic, Inc., in disk encryption, announced an agreement with Intel Corporation to support Intel Anti-Theft Technology (Intel AT).

Combining WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption with Intel AT will provide organizations worldwide with fully-integrated data protection and laptop theft deterrence. WinMagic plans to deliver a comprehensive enterprise notebook security solution that combines SecureDoc full-disk encryption with Intel AT enabled notebooks.

By collaborating with Intel on Anti-Theft, WinMagic will combine data protection with tamper-resistant asset protection and theft deterrence. WinMagic’s integrated security offering will leverage the robust hardware-based capabilities of Intel AT to enable stronger data protection. WinMagic’s SecureDoc will integrate with the local and remote theft detection mechanisms provided by Intel AT during pre-boot and normal operation to ensure that data cannot be accessed by an unauthorized user. If an Intel AT enabled laptop is lost or stolen it can be disabled.

When the notebook is reported as stolen or lost, WinMagic’s integrated solution will support local and remote theft detection mechanisms to not only disable the victim’s notebook (Intel AT) but also prevent the unauthorized user from accessing the data on the stolen notebook (SecureDoc FDE). By using the hardware hooks on Intel AT enabled platforms, the thief will not be able to access the data even if the user credentials are compromised. In addition, the data cannot be retrieved since Intel AT binds the data to the particular platform.

If the laptop is recovered and the theft condition is cleared, the PC can easily be re-activated locally utilizing a pre-provisioned user password or via a remote server-generated reactivation code. Since the data on the recovered laptop is not deleted and the protection is non-destructive, the data can be securely retrieved upon routine pre-boot authentication.

Intel AT is a scalable hardware-based theft deterrence solution that can disable the PC and access to its data when potential theft or loss is detected locally or via a remote notification.

WinMagic is a leader in data-at-rest encryption. As a comprehensive enterprise solution, its FDE solution suite offers strong single or multiple factor authentication while managing the heterogeneous nature of an enterprise IT architecture. SecureDoc provides one integrated enterprise management console to handle everything data-at-rest encryption related including the presence of a SED (self encrypted hard drive), the encryption of removable media, the management of Microsoft Windows-based clients (7/Vista/XP) and Mac clients, password rules and recovery, the labeling of encryption keys, the synchronization with Active Directory and the dynamic management of encryption keys.

SecureDoc also supports and manages hardware-encrypted disk drives such as the Seagate Momentus FDE and BlackArmor drives as well as the TCG Opal specification drives. This provides organizations with the flexibility to deploy any combination of hardware/software-based encryption – or transition between the two – with full transparency for users and a consistent management interface for administrators. This not only makes it easy to customize data protection to meet any security protocol, but also ‘future-proofs’ investment in encryption.

“According to the 2008 Ponemon Cost of a Data Breach Studies, compromised customer records in the U.S. costs a company $202 per record while in the U.K. the cost is £60 per record,” said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO of WinMagic, Inc. “This partnership makes it simple to implement comprehensive data protection practices to ensure a lost or stolen laptop does not provide unauthorized access to company data,” Nguyen-Huu continued. “The collaboration with Intel on Intel AT is the latest in a long line of WinMagic initiatives which make it just as simple to use and manage encrypted devices as unencrypted devices.”

“This collaboration with WinMagic sets a new ease-of-use and ease-of-management benchmark for data security,” said George Thangadurai, Director of Intel’s Strategy and Platform Planning Group, and General Manager of the company’s Anti-Theft Program. “Now, organizations looking to deter PC theft and, more importantly, protect the data inside – the loss of which can be catastrophic to a business – have a simple and intuitive solution that seamlessly combines two best-of-breed technologies.”

“Protection in portable devices such as laptops, must constantly stride the fine line of ensuring accessibility by authorized users and preventing unauthorized access in any form when lost or stolen,” said Eric Ouellet, Vice President, Secure Business Enablement at Gartner. “Integrated approaches leading to platform lockdown that severely undermine the usability and value of a stolen or lost device provide strong deterrence.”