The kingston best practice series is designed to help users of kingston products achieve the best possible user experience. Typically, hardware encryption affects less than onepercent of tape drive. Comments off on hardware encryption vs software encryption. The question is about how secure hardware software encryption is respectively. At the end of the record is a 16 byte tag which provides authentication. Hardware implementation allows for increased security and performance compared to software. When your files are encrypted, they are completely unreadable without the correct encryption key so if someone steals your encrypted files, they cant actually do anything with them. Lto4 hardware encryption best practices dynamic solutions. The hp lto4 can only use one encryption key at a time. Hi nbu forum, ive got a client asking for either hardwaresoftware encryption for their tape backups, and the software they use is nbu. Im curious to know what is the difference between them. Aes 256 hardware encryption safe and secure encryption. Speed of software encryption greatly depends on whether you have hardware acceleration for the method of encryption chosen. Hardware based encryption is the use of computer hardware to assist software, or sometimes replace software, in the process of data encryption.
All drives that are assigned to a logical library use the same method of encryption. Typically, this is implemented as part of the processors instruction set. Software encryption is readily available for all major operating systems and can protect data at rest, in transit, and. People often ask me, when it comes to storage or dataatrest encryption, whats better, file system encryption fse which is done in software by the storage controller, or full disk encryption fde which is done in hardware via specialized self encrypting drives seds. How secure is hardware full disk encryption fde for ssd. Bacula is not involved in hardware tape drive encryption. Sep sesam provides native support for managing the lto hardware based encryption by enabling the lto encryption of tape drives on a media pool level.
Ibm ts4300 tape library models with encryption, path. Software encryption also reduces backup performance and media capacity, because software encrypted data cannot be fully compressed by the tape drive. Hardware aes 256 can perform 10gbps without significant latency. To perform hardware encryption, the tape drives must be encryption enabled. Lto generation 4 and higher includes the ability for data to be encrypted by the tape drive hardware. To my mind, id go with software encryption, but my questions are as follows. Hardware encryption is efficient due to the encryption function being offloaded to the drive from the. Difference between hardware implemented algorithm and software implemented one. The veeam encryption mechanism can only be used if hardware encryption is disabled at the tape device level or not supported. These tape drives provide the necessary controls to the backup applications to get the encryption capabilities as well as set the encryption properties on the drive. If your tapes were initially written to prior to using the encryption capability, the tapes can never be hardware encrypted. Hardware encryption is typically much less complex than similar software encryption. Software fde according to recent studies, as many as 10% of laptop computers are lost or stolen each year, and most of them contain sensitive, confidential data 1. Can we use software encryption within nbu without licensing it.
This edition of the best practice piece covers the differences between hardware based and software based encryption used to secure a usb drive. Basically, aes 256 is available as software or hardware implementation. The encryptionenabled tape drive the ts1 model e06 tape drives and the lto 4 and later drives are encryptioncapable. Enabling native mode encryption on hps lto4 drives. When enabled, tivoli storage manager handles encrypting and decrypting data on tapes, according to specifications set when defining the device class. If we are not to use symantec kms, how we should managed encryption keys. The fist is the skm which is documented in the previous message along with tape drives in the emle or esle libraries. Ssd hardware encryption versus software encryption.
Even if i had to do software encryption, that would be fine with me. The ibm ts1040 lto 4 and later tape drives can also encrypt data as it is. Hardware encryption provides considerably faster performance than software encryption. Security implications of hardware vs software cryptographi. How to use aes hardware encryption of lto tape drives on. Media native capacity the hp lto4 drive with lto4 media can store up to 800 gb of data. Find answers to enabling native mode encryption on hps lto. Customers who need encryption but require the fastest backup speeds should plan to use the encryptioncapable tape hardware such as ts11xx and lto4 lto5lto6lto7lto8 instead since it has very minimal performance degradation. Find answers to enabling native mode encryption on hps lto 4 drives from the. It is authenticated encryption that achieves very high speeds in hardware with.
What is the difference between hardware vs softwarebased. Our community of experts have been thoroughly vetted for. Reverse engineering software implementations are more easily readable by adversaries and are therefore more susceptible to reverse. It can turn compression on or off, i didnt know if it was hardware of software though, and on dpm you cant enable both encryption on compression. But if consistent high throughput, low latency and security are key issues, then dedicated, optimised hardwarebased encryption is superior to softwarebased encryption. Software encryption utilizes server processor power, effectively reducing server performance. Hardware encryption is efficient due to the encryption function being offloaded to the drive from the cpu with little or no performance impact.
The encryption dialog is an exchange of key information between the drive and the encryption key manager, in your case stenc. Either forego tape encryption until their backup software products are. This publication is intended for system programmers, storage administrators, hardware and software planners, and other it personnel involved in planning, implementing, and operating ibm tape data encryption solutions, and anyone seeking details about tape encryption. I expect the lto aes encryption to be faster than software solutions. Often times, hardware encryption devices replace traditional passwords with biometric logons like fingerprints or a pin number that is entered on an attached keypad. Tapebased encryption uses hardware on the drive itself, so encryption is. Linear tapeopen lto is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats that were available at the time. A quick benchmark of aespipe on i7 cpu gives an impression on. Seagate was the first disk drive manufacturers to enter the. Hewlett packard enterprise, ibm, and quantum control the lto consortium, which directs development and manages licensing and certification of media and mechanism manufacturers. But if consistent high throughput, low latency and security are key issues, then dedicated, optimised hardware based encryption is superior to software based encryption. I use it on quite a lot of computers so installing software on each of them to decrypt the contents would be a complete pita so the hardware handling the encryption works better for. How to enable hardware encryption with the lto4 drives. Several tape drives like lto4 support encryption of data on the tape drive.
Tapelevel encryption allows administrators to better utilize capacity and performance by compressing files prior to encryption. Aug 21, 2017 comments off on hardware encryption vs software encryption. Encryption is an incredibly important tool for keeping your data safe. However, lto4 tape drives have specific encryption issues. In the articles about cryptography i see the words hardware implemented and software implemented. Tandberg data now has a solution to minimize these costs with fourth generation lto ultrium. Hi nbu forum, ive got a client asking for either hardware software encryption for their tape backups, and the software they use is nbu. Software full drive encryption page 3 seagate selfencrypting drives with wave systems embassy trusted drive manager.
How secure is hardware full disk encryption fde for ssds. Software encryption is a policydriven, manageable solution that everyone has to get behind. What advantages that symantec kms would give in manageing encryption keys with kms. Find answers to dpm tape encryption and compression from the expert community at experts exchange. Hardware encryption must be established for each data path and is only available for data paths that direct data to tape libraries. Software cryptographic modules 2 hardwarebased solutions have the privilege of not being modifiable at any point, including during the powerup stages. With ultimate reliability and ease of use in mind, even at 100% duty cycles, hps rugged design builds on superior lto technology and adds advanced features like hardware data encryption to create a new level of data protection. The best software method is to use your backup application and an encryption key management option.
Fantastic means of detecting bitrot and a good reason to always use hardware encryption, even with an insecure key it will beat any crc etc done in hardware or any software hashing you can throw at it. When using hardware encryption, the encryption engine in lto4, lto5 or lto6 drives is used to encrypt the data using a key provided by the tape backup software or another external source. Aes256gcm provides both data confidentiality and data integrity in a single, easytouse solution. Certain hardware and software prerequisites must be met before using encryption with the ts4300 tape library. The lto program created a competitive environment with multiple vendors offering. In order to use lto4 hardware encryption, each lto4 tape unit that will. For each data protection operation, the software checks the drive to see if encryption is supported. Obviously, this depends on the individual application. Several tape drives like lto4 or higher support encryption of data on the tape drive.
During a read operation, if another encryption key is found, the dione card requests the key directly from the kms. Because of the potential vulnerabilities of software encryption, kanguru strictly uses 256bit aes hardware encryption for all kanguru defender secure usb flash drives, hard drives and solid state drives. When choosing data security protocols, should you go for hardware or software encryption. The ibm ts1040 lto 4 and later tape drives can also encrypt data as it is written to any lto 4 or later data cartridge. In the other words, even in the computer when i write a program to do a crypto algorithm, i finally run it on cpu. Sponsored by seagate hardware versus software a usability comparison of softwarebased encryption with seagate drivetrust hardwarebased encryption a sans whitepaper september 2007 written by. Quantums lto tape drives are easy to deploy and upgrade perfect for all storage environments.
Encryption is never out of the spotlight in this industry, but the methods that businesses can deploy to encrypt their data are wideranging. Tape device encryption provides security for data on individual tapes and protects sensitive. Tivoli storage manager server support for lto4 drives and lto4 drive encryption is available beginning in interim fix 5. Implementing software or hardware encryption depends on cost and the required security. Lto drives use the 256bit advanced encryption standard with galoiscounter mod of operation or aes256gcm for short. Software encryption is software based, where the encryption of a drive is provided by external software to secure the data. Quantums lto tape drives deliver fast, reliable data protection at an affordable price.
Hardwarebased encryption is the use of computer hardware to assist software, or sometimes replace software, in the process of data encryption. This maximizes tape capacity, and increases backup performance plus puts less of a drain on host resources. Customers who need encryption but require the fastest backup speeds should plan to use the encryptioncapable tape hardware such as ts11xx and lto4lto5lto6lto7lto8 instead since it has very minimal performance degradation. Applications such as backup software must be able to support the drives encryption. However, the alternative tape drive encryption options provided by sun and the lto 4 manufacturers are all excellent implementations of tapebased encryption, albeit with some minor issues that have prevented fips 1402 level 2 certification up to this point. Are hardware encryption chips safer than their software counterparts for desktop apps. The benefits of hardware encryption for secure usb drives. Im currently running bacula for my backups and its support for drive based encryption is i have to call a script or something to. Ibm system storage tape encryption solutions ibm redbooks. All ts1120 model e05 tape drives with feature code 5592 or 9592 are encryption capable. Tape encryption purchase considerations computer weekly. Hardware encryption is safer than software encryption because the encryption process is separate from the rest of the machine. I use arcserve and so just for example with arcserve only the latest version 12.
How to enable hardware encryption with the lto4 dr. Hardware encryption for tape backup dell community. Kangurus hardware encrypted drives contain an alwayson builtin random number generator that independently handles all of the security for the drive. Software vs hardware encryption, whats better and why. How to enable hardware encryption with the lto4 drives there are two hp supported hardware methods for enabling encryption. Im about to purchase a new laptop and am debating where to put my dollars to work in terms of encrypting my data. The backup application needs to support hardware tape encryption. Several tape drives like lto4 or higher support encryption of data on. Dpm tape encryption and compression solutions experts. Brm4403 encryption has been disabled for backup item.
For a number of reasons i have been trying to find a way to encrypt my backup tapes. How to use aes hardware encryption of lto tape drives on linux. Nov 27, 2018 hardware encryption allows you to encrypt data on tape drives that have builtin encryption capabilities. When your files are encrypted, they are completely unreadable without the correct encryption key. With the ts4300 tape library, encryption is managed at the logical library level.
These tape drives provide the necessary controls to the backup. Hardware vs software daniel brecht contributing writer encryption is never out of the spotlight in this industry, but the methods that businesses can deploy to encrypt their data are wideranging. Encryption capability means that they are functionally capable of performing hardware encryption, but this capability is not yet activated. I have read their are 2 types of encryption, software and hardware so was hoping that the hardware encryption would be set independent of what backup software you use. For the hardware based product tests, we chose seagate technologies selfencrypting drives. A quick benchmark of aespipe on i7 cpu gives an impression on the effect of software aes. Oct, 2014 if we are not to use symantec kms, how we should managed encryption keys. Software full drive encryption page 2 fde performance comparison. It is authenticated encryption that achieves very high speeds in hardware with low cost and low latency. Hietala the business requirement for disk encryption barriers to widespread adoption of encryption softwarebased disk encryption hardware. Total cost of ownership for full disk encryption fde, sponsored by winmagic and independently conducted by ponemon institute published in july 2012, the purpose of this.
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