The Agency and the Inline Media Encryptor

Via the NSA Website -

The Inline Media Encryptor (IME) is a government-developed media encryption device. It is positioned "in line" between the computer processor and hard drive to ensure that anything stored to the hard drive gets encrypted and anything retrieved from the hard drive gets decrypted. The IME protects data classified Top Secret and below. Data stored on the hard drive is considered unclassified when encrypted. Anticipated certification is by Spring 2006.

The IME provides Type 1 Encryption on a computer's Integrated Device Electronic (IDE) hard drive. It encrypts all physical sectors, including the Operating System (OS). With the IME physically positioned between the computer system and its hard drive, all data must pass through the IME and is stored encrypted on an IDE hard drive. Only those files "called" from the hard drive are decrypted. The hard drive always remains encrypted.

The IME meets emergency zeroization requirements for the rapid zeroization of data - without destroying the computer or rendering the data completely unrecoverable. The adversary will have no way of obtaining the information stored on the hard drive without the CIK or if you initiated the emergency zeroization mechanism. However, methods are in place to restore data if zeroized.

IME Features and Benefits