| 摘要 |
The invention provides additional protection for data stored in a data storage device situated within a secure environment by using active erasure to erase the stored data when an intrusion into the secure environment is detected. Active erasure effects erasure of data in a data storage device much more rapidly than passive erasure, so that the erasure of data cannot be prevented by a tamperer before the data is erased. Active erasure also enables data to be rapidly erased without requiring use of a processor (and, in some cases, additional devices) to effect the erasure or other destruction of data, which use is relatively complex and expensive, can be disabled in some situations, and cannot guarantee destruction of data in situations in which insufficient power may be available to operate the processor. The invention has particular utility when used with a volatile data storage device that is situated within a secure environment and connected to a power supply. Though the invention can be used to protect data stored in any such volatile data storage device, the invention can be particularly useful when implemented in a secure device (and, even more particularly, in such secure device that is portable) that uses a backup power supply (such as a battery) to maintain storage of data in the volatile data storage device when the secure device is not operating (i.e., connected to a primary power supply).
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