With the decrease in the cost of electronic storage media, more and more sensitive data is stored in those media. Laptops regularly disappear, either because they are lost or because they are stolen.
These laptops contain confidential information, in the form of documents, presentations, emails, cached data, and network access credentials. This confidential information is typically much more valuable than portable hardware, if it reaches the right people. There are two main aspects to protecting the privacy of the data in these storage media / laptops. First, the data must be stored in a confidential manner. Secondly, we must ensure that confidential data once deleted can no longer be restored.
There are several methods for storing sensitive data, such as encryption programs, encryption file system, etc. Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption provides encryption for hard disk volume and is available with editions of Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise. This seminar describes the most commonly used encryption algorithm, Advanced Encryption System (AES), which is used for many of the methods of storing sensitive data. This seminar also describes some of the methods for deleting sensitive data such as physical destruction, data overwriting methods, and key deletion.
Traditional methods for protecting confidential information are based on maintaining the integrity of the system. If a computer is safe from hackers and malware, so are your data. Ensuring integrity in today's interconnected world, however, is extremely difficult. There are two main components to protecting the privacy of data in electronic storage media. First, the data should be stored confidentially without incurring drawbacks during normal use. Secondly, the data must be removed from the storage medium in an unrecoverable manner, at the time of disposal.