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New IBM Technology Fights Data Theft

IBM launched new technology that will help to control the spreading problem of businesses exposing sensitive customer information stored on computers, by theft or carelessness.The technology encrypts credit card information, social security numbers and other private data archived on magnetic tapes, which is the most common type of storage media in use by businesses today.

The data becomes inaccessible while falling into the wrong hands. Andy Monshaw, general manager of IBM`s system storage group says: "It`s useless to whoever gets it. In the past 18 months alone, 90 million U.S. consumers have had their personal data unintentionally exposed. Much of that information was held on storage tapes."

Using encryption is not a new invention. Sun Microsystems has also developed encryption for its StorageTek T10000 systems. The demand for such systems is thought to be great as businesses are under growing pressure to do a better job of protecting consumers` data. Thirty states now requires customer notification if their personal data is lost or stolen. IBM has already surpassed its year-end sales goal for the TS1120. The company also plans to eventually add the encryption technology to its disk-based storage systems.