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Which of the following represents the greatest threat t…

A security administrator has deployed all laptops with Self Encrypting Drives (SED) and enforces key
encryption. Which of the following represents the greatest threat to maintaining data confidentiality with these
devices?

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A.
Full data access can be obtained by connecting the drive to a SATA or USB adapter bypassing the SED
hardware.

B.
A malicious employee can gain the SED encryption keys through software extraction allowing access to
other laptops.

C.
If the laptop does not use a Secure Boot BIOS, the SED hardware is not enabled allowing full data access.

D.
Laptops that are placed in a sleep mode allow full data access when powered back on.

Explanation:
Hardware-based encryption when built into the drive is transparent to the user. The drive except for bootup
authentication operates just like any drive with no degradation in performance. When the computer is started
up, the user is prompted to enter a password to allow the system to boot and allow access to the encrypted
drive.
When a laptop is placed into sleep mode (also known as standby mode), the computer is placed into a low
power mode. In sleep mode, the computer is not fully shut down. The screen is turned off, the hard disks are
turned off and the CPU is throttled down to its lowest power state. However, the computer state is maintained in
memory (RAM).
Most computers can be ‘woken’ from sleep mode by pressing any key on the keyboard or pressing the power
button. The computer can be configured to require a password on wake up, but if a password is not required,
the computer will wake up and be logged in as it was at the time of going into sleep mode. This would enable
full access to the data stored on the disks.


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