公开(公告)号：US20170237563A1

公开(公告)日：2017-08-17

申请号：US15038833

申请日：2014-11-13

Applicant: BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

Inventor： Fadi EL-MOUSSA ,  Theo DIMITRAKOS ,  Georgios VAFIADIS

IPC: H04L9/32 ,  G06F3/06

CPC classification number: H04L9/3226 ,  G06F3/0622 ,  G06F3/0659 ,  G06F3/0673 ,  G06F21/44 ,  H04L63/0876

Abstract: A method for securely accessing a hardware storage device connected to a computer system, the hardware storage device having a unique hardware identifier and the computer system including a processor, the method comprising: an agent software component receiving the identifier of the storage device to authenticate the storage device, wherein the agent executes in an unrestricted mode of operation of the processor such that the agent is a trusted software component; in response to the authentication, the agent accessing a secure data key for encrypting and decrypting data on the storage device, wherein the data key is accessible only to trusted agents executing in the unrestricted mode of the processor such that software executing in a user mode of the processor stores and retrieves data on the storage device only via the agent.