The SSD You Can’t Fly With

RunCore has just introduced a wonderfully innovative new SSD feature that could create new problems for air travel.

From the company’s press release: “RunCore’s Xapear is a smart USB 2.0 connected SSD solution with RFID protection, allowing you to split your data into a freely accessible partition, and a hidden partition that only becomes accessible by applying a special RFID key to your SSD. Furthermore, the Xapear offers remote data destruction by simply sending an SMS over your GSM from your mobile device to the integrated GSM receiver, which then will immediately start overwriting all your data and thereby deleting all previous content. After successful data elimination the SSD’s GSM will send a confirmation SMS to your mobile.”

Now that sounds pretty cool, and it should be very interesting to all those CIOs whose traveling employees sometimes leave their external drives behind at airport security, but air travel poses a particular problem.

In many countries cell phone use is prohibited in flight for fear that the signal will interfere with the airplane’s navigation and communications systems.  Assuming these concerns are ongoing, then the air carriers will need to assure that the GSM-enabled SSD will not be powered-up during flight.  About the only way to make sure that doesn’t happen is by preventing passengers from using their PCs for the duration of the flight.

Although The SSD Guy finds RunCore’s idea to be admirably innovative, I do have concerns that market success will result in some important undesirable side effects!