Storage Controller Password Authentication for Data Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing HDDs with authentication functions prevent data leakage by canceling encryption keys upon failed authentication, but lack a mechanism to ensure data security when replaced with non-authenticated HDDs, allowing external data access and leakage.
Innovation Solution
A controller for storage apparatuses that acquires and verifies user passwords, enables or disables data reading and writing based on password consistency, and allows formatting only when the password is correct, ensuring secure access even without authentication functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If HDD with authentication function is used, then data security is improved, but device compatibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The controller acts as an intermediary between the host device and the HDD, implementing authentication functionality in the controller rather than requiring it in the HDD itself. The controller verifies passwords, manages authentication data, and controls access to the HDD, thereby providing data security through an intermediate layer that works with both authenticated and non-authenticated HDDs.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication function is copied from the HDD to the controller. Instead of relying on the HDD's built-in authentication capability, the controller replicates the authentication logic by storing authentication data locally and performing password verification, thus achieving the same security effect without requiring the HDD to have native authentication features.
2Reliability
If authentication function is implemented in HDD, then data protection is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication function is extracted from the HDD and relocated to the controller. The controller now handles password verification, authentication data storage, and access control, while the HDD's role is simplified to basic data storage and retrieval operations, thereby reducing the HDD's complexity while maintaining data protection capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller serves as an intermediary layer that centralizes authentication management. By consolidating authentication logic in the controller rather than distributing it across multiple components, the system achieves data protection with centralized control, reducing overall system complexity compared to having authentication embedded in the HDD itself.
Data Source
AI summary
According to one embodiment, a controller for controlling a connected storage apparatus includes a storage unit and a control unit. The control unit acquires a password input by a user, judges whether or not the password is consistent with a password previously registered in the storage unit, cancels authentication data that is stored in the storage unit and enables reading and writing toward the storage apparatus of data and allows the formatting toward the storage apparatus in a condition that the password is consistent with the password previously registered in the storage unit, and disables reading and writing toward the storage apparatus of data and formatting toward the storage apparatus in a condition that the password is not consistent with the password previously registered in the storage unit.