I HATE gimmicks

[thorin]

Checkout this article:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09...ange_expanded/

Note the last line:

LaCie has also announced two SAFE Mobile drives with built-in encryption, which should reassure the more paranoid user. In the US the 80GB costs $219.99, which is a premium of $50 over the non-encryption SAFE, while the 120GB costs $299.99 - a premium of $20.

Does anyone else see the problem here?

If you pay a premium for encryption "over the non-encryption SAFE" doesn't that kinda suggest that their regular "SAFE" drives are just a pretty enclosure with a thumb print scanner that interfaces with software to do basically zero? If the data isn't encrypted then what prevents someone from stealing the device, ripping the drive out, and plopping it in any system or enclosure?

Maybe I'm missing something but this seems like a complete Gimmick to me......give the consumers a biometric device and they'll think they're all secure.

 

[So]

Agreed.

 

[oynaz]

Actually, the non-encrypted version is on the borderline to being illegal, at least in Denmark.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Varying levels of "safe" is all. It's at least slightly more secure than a normal drive, if you can't access it without the fingerprint. It's not totally secure but it's not entirely a non-functional gimmick.

And your link doesn't work.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/07/lacie_safe_drive_range_expanded/

 

[Goi]

The encrypted SAFE offers data storage encryption, while the non-encrypted one offers biometric access control. I'm not sure if you can just rip the HDD out of the casing to circumvent the biometric access control, but with the encrypted version even if you did that you wouldn't be able to decrypt the data on the HDD without a lot of time/computers so it'd be useless.

 

[Rommel44]

Originally posted by: thorin

If you pay a premium for encryption "over the non-encryption SAFE" doesn't that kinda suggest that their regular "SAFE" drives are just a pretty enclosure with a thumb print scanner that interfaces with software to do basically zero? If the data isn't encrypted then what prevents someone from stealing the device, ripping the drive out, and plopping it in any system or enclosure?

Maybe I'm missing something but this seems like a complete Gimmick to me......give the consumers a biometric device and they'll think they're all secure.

I agree with you.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Actually, the non-encrypted version is on the borderline to being illegal, at least in Denmark.

How so?

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
And your link doesn't work.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/07/lacie_safe_drive_range_expanded/

DOH.....thanks fixed now 😉

Originally posted by: Goi
The encrypted SAFE offers data storage encryption, while the non-encrypted one offers biometric access control. I'm not sure if you can just rip the HDD out of the casing to circumvent the biometric access control, but with the encrypted version even if you did that you wouldn't be able to decrypt the data on the HDD without a lot of time/computers so it'd be useless.

Agreed the encrypted version is fine, however I still question the usefulness of the biometric access control. It would basically be as difficult to circumvent as moving a NTFS drive from one 2k or XP system to another. (It's like one of those old *.exe screensaver where you can enable a password check when 'waking up' but do a ctrl+alt+del and end the process).