New SSDs Have Built-in Protection Against Ransomware, Data Theft
Phison and Cigent introduced a co-developed SSD platform that protects against ransomware and data theft with mechanisms built directly into the SSD's firmware. The drives even automatically encrypt and hide data from prying eyes in the event of an attack. These 'self-defending' drives will be available to everyone this year. Antiviruses can detect already-known malware and analyze programs' behavior to detect potentially illicit behavior patterns. However, custom ransomware developed by hacker groups can remain undetected until it is too late, leaving systems open to attack. Therefore, it makes sense to protect data at the hardware level in many cases since this is usually secure from manipulation.
Cigent's Secure SSD K2 and Secure SSD Denali drives are based on Phison's PS5012-E12DC Crypto-SSD NVMe controllers and come with embedded firmware-based security features as well as Cigent Dynamic Data Defense Engine for Windows (D³E). When a threat is detected, these drives automatically encrypt and hide sensitive files completely from the OS layer in 'safe rooms.' In fact, Cigent's drives can work in a 'Dual Mode' that splits an SSD into independent private/secure and non-private storage partitions that are invisible to one another and adversaries. Meanwhile, to protect data against physical theft, Cigent's drives also come equipped with attack detectors and sensors.
Furthermore, the Cigent Denali Secure SSD can actually detect ransomware (although it is unclear whether the firmware detects that a program encrypts data or the D³E software does it) and will support machine learning-based data protection later this year.
