Addonics Unveils External CipherChain to Encrypt Any External eSATA Storage Device

Addonics Technologies, a provider of hardware-based encryption products, announced the launch of External CipherChain, a full disk hardware encryption product that allows users to encrypt external data storage device with eSATA or SATA connection.

The solution also enables users to connect from data on external RAID storage devices to external hard drives, Solid State Drives (SSDs) and flash media.

The External CipherChain is built on a FIPS certified AES 256-bit crypto engine. Users can insert the Cipher Key to activate the encryption and decryption of data on the fly with no performance degradation.

The usage is easy for customers since there is no software or driver to install and no special training is required. The External CipherChain is also operating system independent, company officials said.

External storage device with eSATA or SATA connection can be attached to the External CipherChain. The External CipherChain connects to any host via an eSATA port. The External CipherChain can connect to USB 3.0 / 2.0 ports on any computer with an Addonics adapter.

The compact size and rugged metal housing makes it portable, enabling their deployments when applications need data security. Power consumption is also low. The External CipherChain operates at low power. It can be powered by the system using Addonics optional cables.

The External CipherChain's 256-bit disk encryption encrypts the boot sector, partition table and the information in the drive. If the encrypted external drive is stolen, the drive will appear as a brand new drive with no trace of any data. It can also be used as a drive sanitization tool for removing any sensitive data stored on hard drives or flash media.

In December 2010, Addonics announced its Multi-Media Tower (MMT), a compact external storage device that can read/write data stored in a variety of formats. The Multi Media Tower allows users to mix drive types and read/write to storage formats from a single enclosure.