Siemens COM selects Eracom Technologies ProtectDrive

Leveraging the advanced security of Eracom Technologies’ ProtectDrive with the physical security of Siemens COM CardOS smart cards, this partnership delivers the first pre-boot PKI based two-factor authentication solution to the German market. Meeting government and enterprise needs for data encryption and user authentication for servers, workstations and laptops, Eracom Technologies will play an integral role with the already planned deployment of Siemens COM smart cards to all of German government agencies. ProtectDrive, a world-leading security solution popular within enterprise and government segments for encrypting the entire hard drives of servers, PCs and laptops, is one of the most secure software products of its type. The integration of the Siemens COM smart card under the Siemens CardOs operating system, delivers benefit by heightening the security even further with two-factor authentication. This authentication process consists of the combination of ‘Mind and Hardware’; what you know (username and pass-phrase) plus the Siemens smart card. This combination is therefore required to certify pre-boot access to the computing device operating system and encrypted data stored on its hard drive. Single-factor authentication requires only a username and pass-phrase as pre-boot authentication. A Siemens COM smart card device is uniquely issued to each individual user, containing an encrypted algorithm that secures and manages the PIN certificate, which is exclusive to the system it is authenticating to. The user must insert the smart card into their PC before the system proceeds to the user authentication stage. It is then that the user enters the pass-phrase and authenticates to the device itself (assuming the PIN is correct). ProtectDrive authenticates the pass-phrase with the smart card allowing the PC to boot the operating system and transparently decrypt data on the hard drive with the only user interaction entailing username and pass-phrase entry. All data is automatically encrypted when stored on a hard drive protected by ProtectDrive. Maximum protection against data theft requires not only strong user authentication management and data encryption, but also protection of the master boot record. Data thieves can circumvent inbuilt security systems by removing the disk and installing it on another machine to read previously encrypted data via the new computers Windows’ permissions. ProtectDrives Pre-Boot Authentication feature totally eliminates this risk, securely authenticating the user prior to booting the operating system. Data is encrypted even when the PC is switched off, ensuring non-readability via another computer.