Not long after winding up a Y2K project (remember that?) one of my managers asked me what I thought is next on the horizon.  My answer was "security always has a place and it will get more complex and harder to defend your information".  Seagate's Maxtor division has introduced the BlackArmor, a 2.5 inch portable external storage solution featuring AES-grade encryption. 

As storage capability increases and physical size decreases, it scares me to know that I could lose an awful lot of data in a one fell swoop.  It could be device failure, it could just be misplacing it or worse, targeted theft.  The Maxtor BlackArmor solution is a 160GB portable storage device that delivers the confidence and reliability of robust security in a compact consumer-friendly design.  Let's admit it, that's a pretty swanky design!

This device contains a hardware encryption engine and all keys are stored on the device.  All data is encrypted before being written to the disk and decrypted for authorised access. These operations are transparent to users.

Maxtor BlackArmor is expected to be available in Q2 2008 with a MSRP of USD$150.