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WD toughens portable, desktop HDD security

Auto-encrypting My Book, My Passport drives

WD has tweaked its portable hard drive line-up, rolling out new, smaller My Passport drives with "military grade" hardware encryption.

WD My Passport Essential

WD's My Passport Essential: smaller size, bigger capacity, tougher security

The new Essential and Mac drives auto-encrypt data using 256-bit keys, and the drives can be password-protected too.

The drives come in capacities of 320GB, 500GB, 640GB and 1TB, and in a range of colours. They only have USB 2.0 ports but are bus powered. The drives are physically 20 per cent smaller than the previous versions.

WD My Book WD My Book

MyBook: new enclosure

WD's My Book Essential and My Book for Mac desktop drives have also been given a makeover and had the capacities upgraded to a range of 500GB to 2TB. Again, both sets feature auto-encryption and USB 2.0 ports.

All four drive families feature WD SmartWare, the company's upgraded back-up application - it "gives users a reassuring view of their backup as it happens", apparently.

The new My Passport drives run from £55-170/$110-250, while the updated My Books cost between £75/$100 and £180/$250. ®

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