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U.S. gov't mandates laptop security

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Source: Security Focus - Posted by Efren J. Belizario

The Bush Administration is giving federal civilian agencies just 45 days to comply with new recommendations for laptop encryption and two-factor authentication.

The memo follows a wave of high profile data thefts and major security breeches involving remote access or the theft of government laptop computers containing sensitive personal information.

Read this full article at Security Focus

Comments

Full Disc Encryption required

Written by Saqib Ali on 2006-07-09 21:16:59

These might help:
http://www.full-disc-encryption.com/Full_Disc_Encryption.html

There are some agencies in DC looking into full disc encryption. The following are some reasons why full disc encryption is preferable.

1) Encryption of temporary / swap is important as confidential data
maybe revealed from these files in case of HDD theft.

2) Quick Erase functionality as advertised by Seagate's FDE.2 drive
provide immediate data destruction by replacing the AES key on the
ASIC. This can save thousands of dollar the agency spends in proper
destruction of the HDD. Once the encryption key is removed the HDD can be repurposed.
See
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketing/po_momentus_5400_fde_bb.pdf

3) user-proof. everything is encrypted if FDE is enabled. This the key. The employee who has sensitive data on his/her laptop should not have to decide which file/folders to encrypts. That decision must be made for them, which is to encrypt everything. No exceptions!!!

4) pre-boot authentication using bio-metric or secure tokens or smart-cards.

5) Hardware based Full Disc Encryption is fast, and creates minimum overhead, so the employee has NO excuse to NOT encrypt data..

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