Microgaming Encrypted Drives – Pros and Cons

At the beginning, it would be completely appropriate to say a few words, why the data encoding is so important, especially in our days. As all we know, together with the technological progress, the number of crimes committed in the world of information technology is constantly growing. But, nevertheless, people continue to share their personal data through the opened sources. For this reason, the web-sites, which provide services with high information risks, are obligated to ensure the highest data protection.

hardware encryption in Microgaming company

Basically, there are two main types of the encoding:

  • File encryption. Helps to protect data in a certain file.
  • Entire drive cryptography. This method is more reliable and makes it difficult for everyone to get access to the disk.

Microgaming corporation as a software developer in the sphere of entertainment, has to be assured that personal data of clients, as well as the financial information are absolutely secured. Its perfect reputation and success are confirmed by complicated coding systems.
Online casinos refer to the institutions, which deal with virtual money, credit and debit cards. Therefore, they use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection with the 128-bit and 256-bit encryption. In other words, SSL is the protocol that establishes secure correlation between a client and a server, and in case of hacker threats it will take 2128 combinations to crack the key.

The pros of encoded drive:

  • – Grants protection from the offline attacks;
  • – It’s more effective than the cipher of the file;
  • – Only recovery key grants access to the disk.

The cons of encrypted drive:

  • – May decrease disk efficiency;
  • – The data will be completely lost in case of the recovery key loss.

File/Folder Encryption and Full Disk Encryption

As it was mentioned before, file or folder encryption (FFE) is basically used for personal purposes, when the user would like to secure certain information. Full disk encryption (FDE), however, is more complicated and protects all information that is saved anywhere on the drive. The FDE is mostly recommended for big organizations with a huge amount of employees.

Advantages of File/Folder

Advantages of File or Folder Encryption may be considered as follows:

  • – First of all, files or folders that have to be protected are easy to manage and control than the full hard drive;
  • – Encrypted files may be not only those that are stored on a PC, but also on a local network;
  • – FFE uses modern algorithms;
  • – User can specify which file/folder to encode;
  • – FFE uses different keys for different parts of the disk (operating system area, boot area, user file and directory area);
  • – Information in the file or folder is safe while transferring via e-mail, for example.

Benefits of FDE

Encoding the full drive is a question of necessity, which has its own pluses.

  • – Encoder can be embodied both on a hardware and software. Some hardware-based FDE systems allow to protect all portions of the disk, including boot sector;
  • – One key is used for the entire drive, which makes it easy to recover.

Differences Between FDE and Self-Encrypting Drive

Microgaming hardware encryptionThere are two basic methods of encryption: hardware and software. FDE (Full Disk Encryption) uses one of these two methods, when SED (Self-Encrypting Drive) uses always the first one. Simply saying, SED is a method of FDE.

Realization Methods

The methods of realization of encrypted data depend on different needs and possibilities. Before using one of them, either hardware or software, it is better to decide what for it’s needed and what advantages it has.

Hardware

hardware iconMicrogaming hardware-based encryption is mostly used for portable or removable devices (laptop, USB drive etc.). It’s appropriate for the security of high level, doesn’t require additional drive installation.


Easy to Deploy

ok icon In a hardware-based method, encrypted drive is a physical device what makes it easy for implementation. In software-based realization of module occurs at the database layer.

Key Security

ok icon The encryption key is generated with the help of a random number generator (which is also called RNG), which can be unlocked by entering a password.

Inflexible Deployment

ok icon Looking at the fact that crypto module is realized via hardware device, sometimes it seems uncomfortable to perform some manipulations such as updates, for example.


Software

software iconSoftware encryption, however, is preferable for today, as it is more convenient, easy to use, flexible, can be simply updated, and available for all operating systems.


Productivity

ok icon Software-based encryption is more sensitive to the hacker’s attacks, limits the number of attempts, which increases the productivity of PC work.

Keys Vulnerabilities

ok icon One of the negative aspects is that according to the small size of the crypto key (sometimes only 40 bits) it is easy to crack encrypted data.

Difficult Updating

ok icon In comparison to software encryption that can be easily updated, hardware-based is more complicated as it requires entire device substitution.

Compatibility

ok icon Implementation of software module doesn’t require any additional hardware. The encryption process passes less painful for the OS.


Trusted Platform Module

Microgaming hardware-based encryptionTPM is a unique crypto chip that is implemented in motherboard and is used for hardware device authentication.

Trusted Computing Group

TCG has a lot of members among international IT companies, whose goal is to develop trusted technologies for network, mobile devices, crypto systems etc.

OS

The role of OS in data encryption is rather auxiliary. The OS components in major cases do not interrupt the encoding process.