WinMagic has been working independently with the self-encrypting drive manufacturers for over two years and is uniquely positioned to provide independent software vendor (ISV) insight directly to the TCG Storage Work Group regarding the Opal standard for self-encrypting hard drives. Joining the TCG will enable WinMagic to serve as a Contributor Advisor on the Board of Directors, Work Groups or Special Committees, and chair Work Groups and Special Committees and the subgroups formed by Work Groups or Special Committees.

"As the recipient of AES Certificate number 1 from NIST, the first disk encryption vendor to be approved by the NSA to protect Secret level data and the first full-disk encryption vendor to integrate with biometrics at pre-boot, WinMagic is uniquely positioned to drive further TCG data protection innovations," said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO and President of WinMagic Inc. "Joining the TCG further underscores WinMagic's commitment to industry standards as the best method of providing all the benefits of data protection without any of the traditional management and user inconveniences," Nguyen-Huu continued. "In fact, WinMagic's SecureDoc full-disk encryption solution has been developed to make it just as simple to use and manage an encrypted device as an unencrypted device."

"The Trusted Computing Group has been seeking greater ISV input into the development and adoption of the Opal standard. We are pleased to welcome WinMagic and look forward to having them contribute significant expertise in the area of disk encryption" said Dr. Jorge Campello, Chair of the TCG Storage Workgroup and Senior Manager, Systems and Architecture, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Formed in 2003, The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) was developed to develop, define, and promote open, vendor-neutral industry specifications for trusted computing. These include hardware building blocks and software interface specifications across multiple platforms and operating environments. Implementation of these specifications will help manage data and digital identities more securely, protecting them from external software attack and physical theft.