What attacks does the self-encrypting drive protect against?
Self-encrypting drives are designed to protect against off-line or Data at Rest attacks. The attacks are most commonly performed on lost or stolen laptops. For an appropriately configured drive, physical theft of the drive or platform will require knowledge of a pre-boot password. If the self-encrypting drive is removed from the PC and mounted as a secondary drive in another PC, the data cannot be read unless the proper password is used to unlock the self-encrypting drive.
