Techniques for secure storage hijacking protection

A solid state drive (SSD) comprising:

• a non-volatile main memory;
• a Proof of Physical Access (PPA) mechanism which generates a PPA value responsive to a direct physical user interaction with the storage device;
• and
• controller circuitry coupled to the non-volatile main memory and the PPA mechanism and configured to receive a storage command from a host, to detect activation of a security protocol for the SSD, to determine whether the received storage command is a protected command responsive to the detected activation of the security protocol, to execute the received storage command responsive to the received storage command being a protected command and responsive to detection of the PPA value within a predetermined elapsed time interval, and to not execute the received storage command responsive to the received storage command being a protected command responsive to an absence of the PPA value within the predetermined elapsed time interval, the protected command comprising a command that changes access to data stored in the non-volatile memory.