The Defender Opal SED automatically locks itself when powered off, making all data stored within, including the OS, completely inaccessible.

NSA-approved AES 256-bit encryption is applied to the entire drive, not just specific files or folders.

The Defender Opal SED can be unlocked from a secure pre-boot environment. The on-board Pre-boot Authenticator (PBA) allows an authorized user to unlock the drive with a password.

Once unlocked, the Defender Opal SED behaves like a normal SSD.

Cryptographic processes are performed by the Defender Opal SED’s hardware, completely transparent to the attached host system. This means there is no software demand and no negative impact on your system performance or data transfer speeds.

Federal Information Processing Standard (140-2) certification means the Defender Opal SED’s cryptographic module has been reviewed by an accredited National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory and found to be in compliance with strict, security requirements.

FIPS 140-2 covers areas related to the secure design and implementation of a cryptographic module, including specification; ports and interfaces; roles, services, and authentication; finite state model; physical security; operational environment; cryptographic key management; self-tests; design assurance; and mitigation of other attacks.

You can permanently delete the entire contents of a Defender Opal SED in mere seconds using Secure Wipe. By destroying and regenerating cryptographic keys, all previously saved data is rendered indecipherable and impossible to recover.

Both the SATA and NVMe Opal SEDs operate with high-speed sequential and random read/write performance, using efficient solid state technology.