The National Archives lose a terabyte drive filled with sensitive data

The National Archives lost a terabyte disk drive filled with sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers and Secret Service procedures.

Had this data been on a self-encrypting drive, we would not have heard of its loss.  That’s because the data would never have been at risk. 

Assuming the data was saved somewhere else, there would be no need to find the drive, no need to change procedures, no need to notify Al Gore and his daughter that her SSN is now “out there”. 

 Data on a lost self-encrypted drive remains as safe as any other data.

The government should mandate self-encrypting disk drives for all sensitive data, even for all government storage. For that matter, our economy would benefit greatly were all businesses required to encrypt their sensitive data.