Lenovo Assigned Patent

Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Singapore, SG, has been assigned a patent (8,266,449) developed by four co-inventors for a "security for storage devices."

The co-inventors are David C. Challener, Steven D. Goodman, Raleigh, NC, Randall S. Springfield, Chapel Hill, NC, and Jeffrey R. Hobbet, Holly Springs, NC.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The invention broadly contemplates a security solution for storage devices that is inexpensive and robust. The invention allows a store of system specific data to be used to release the hard disk key of full-disk encryption (FDE) drives. This system specific data is passed to the FDE drives and used to calculate the actual encryption key. This allows for safe disposal of an FDE drive containing confidential data, as the lack of available system specific decryption data makes decryption virtually impossible."

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2009 (12/415,495).