The Thinkpad encryption chip, does it work?

jackieonasses · Jul 17, 2004

I searched the forums, but i couldn't find anything on the new Thinkpad's chip that somehow encrypts on the fly. I will never buy one but i was curious after seeing countless comercials about how it prevents hackers and what-not. Is that Windows soultion? or is it another one of those marketing gimmicks?

Just curious!

stoid · Jul 17, 2004

I don't see how this is different than the AirPort WEP Encryption idea. It has to be a standard. You can't send encrypted data to a source that can't decrypt it, so I don't think that this is something new or revolutionary.

jackieonasses · Jul 17, 2004

stoid said:
I don't see how this is different than the AirPort WEP Encryption idea. It has to be a standard. You can't send encrypted data to a source that can't decrypt it, so I don't think that this is something new or revolutionary.

That is completley what i thought. thanks for the response.

flanders · Jul 20, 2004

The thinkpad encryption chip is for the hard disk. Everything on the disk is encrypted by the hardware and when read back through the same hardware (with the same key) it's decrypted and the computer can use it. If someone were to take your laptop (and not your password) they couldn't boot up...then if they just tried to take your HD and use it in a computer that would boot up they still couldn't use your software or see any data; because the disk is still encrypted.

Oh...and it does work

Chip NoVaMac · Jul 20, 2004

flanders said:
The thinkpad encryption chip is for the hard disk. Everything on the disk is encrypted by the hardware and when read back through the same hardware (with the same key) it's decrypted and the computer can use it. If someone were to take your laptop (and not your password) they couldn't boot up...then if they just tried to take your HD and use it in a computer that would boot up they still couldn't use your software or see any data; because the disk is still encrypted.

Oh...and it does work

Sounds like OS X's File Vault.

musicpyrite · Jul 20, 2004

Chip NoVaMac said:
Sounds like OS X's File Vault.

Sort of, but the encryption chip is a physical chip that encrypts it, File vault is software.

Isn't the encryption chip in the mother board? I remember looking at a mobo, and the RIAA was getting their panties all in a wad about it because it would prevent peple from knowing if you had illegallly downloaded muisc, I don't exactly know how it works.....

iNetwork · Jul 21, 2004

musicpyrite said:
Sort of, but the encryption chip is a physical chip that encrypts it, File vault is software.

Isn't the encryption chip in the mother board? I remember looking at a mobo, and the RIAA was getting their panties all in a wad about it because it would prevent peple from knowing if you had illegallly downloaded muisc, I don't exactly know how it works.....

Instead of using your computer's processor, a dedicated encryption processor is used to encrypt/decrypt the data. This way already slow laptop hard drive performance isn't decreased any further. It also frees your main processor to do other tasks and doesn't require additional ram to load any software.

In the corporate storage environment, raid 5 arrays likewise use a dedicated processor to handle the XOR calls for parity.

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The Thinkpad encryption chip, does it work?

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