Disk drive comprising encryption circuitry selectively enabled by verifying a circuit that provides plaintext data

Abstract

A disk drive comprising a disk for storing encrypted data is disclosed. The disk drive comprises a first circuit for providing plaintext data to a second circuit. The second circuit comprises controllable encryption circuitry for encrypting the plaintext data into the encrypted data. The controllable encryption circuitry comprises a data input, an enable input, and a data output. The second circuit further comprises a plaintext input for providing the plaintext data to the data input, an encrypted text output for providing the encrypted data from the data output, and a first control input for receiving a first device authentication signal for authenticating the first circuit. The second circuit comprises a first verification circuit, responsive to the first device authentication signal, for producing a first verification signal for use in controlling the enable input of the encryption circuitry to enable the encryption circuitry to provide the encrypted data via the encrypted text output.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.