Securing data on data cartridges

• US 20100161895A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Imation Corporation (Glassbridge Enterprises, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Imation Corporation (Glassbridge Enterprises, Inc.)
• Inventors: Battles, Kevin G., Qualls, William R., Jackson, Robert S., Gregg, Jody L., Jennings, C. Thomas
• Application Number:
  US12/317,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161895A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/111
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00

Abstract

Techniques are described for securing data on data cartridges, such as a Linear Tape-Open (LTO) data cartridge. The techniques include modifying a portion of a cartridge memory (CM) chip of the cartridge in a way that a cartridge drive will be unable to access the data cartridge and to prevent modification of the CM chip by the cartridge drive. In one embodiment, a system includes a data cartridge including a CM chip, a chip reader to read data from and write data to the CM chip, and a computing device to control the chip reader. The computing device causes the chip reader to read data from the cartridge memory chip of the data cartridge and to modify a portion of memory of the chip to prevent unauthorized reads and writes to the data cartridge, without rendering the modification irreversible.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

reading a cartridge memory chip associated with a data cartridge; and

modifying a portion of memory of the chip to prevent unauthorized access to data of the data cartridge, without rendering the modification irreversible.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reversing the modification to the portion of memory of the chip to permit reading of the data of the cartridge.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of memory of the chip comprises encrypting an unprotected-page table of the chip.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of memory of the chip comprises:

identifying a location of an initialization page of the chip;

identifying an empty page of the chip;

copying the initialization page to the empty page; and

deleting the initialization page from the identified location.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein copying the initialization page further comprises encrypting the initialization page and storing the encrypted initialization page to the empty page.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of memory of the chip comprises:

determining whether a vendor-specific-identifier of a page of the chip is set to identify the cartridge as vendor specific; and

when the vendor-specific-identifier is not set to identify the cartridge as vendor specific;

changing the vendor-specific-identifier to identify the cartridge as vendor specific; and

resetting cyclical redundancy check (CRC) bytes of the page to reflect the changes to the vendor-specific-identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein reading a cartridge memory chip associated with a data cartridge comprises reading a cartridge memory chip associated with a Linear Tape-Open (LTO) data cartridge, the method further comprising

identifying a generation of the cartridge from the cartridge memory chip:

when the generation of the cartridge is equal to generation one, generation two, or generation three, wherein changing the vendor-specific-identifier to identify the cartridge as vendor specific comprises setting byte 0 bit 6 of format type bytes of an initialization page; and

when the generation of the cartridge is equal to a different generation, changing the vendor-specific-identifier to identify the cartridge as vendor specific comprises setting byte 0 bit 4 of a writeable contents page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of memory of the chip comprises modifying a sequence of linear position numbers of an initialization page of the chip, wherein the linear position numbers comprise at least one of a begin-tape number, a begin-servo number, a begin-data number, an end-data number, an end-servo number, and an end-tape number.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting format type bytes of an initialization page of the chip and resetting CRC bytes of the initialization page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting a tape write pass page.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting a table directory page.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting an end-of-data page.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting a cartridge status and tape alert flags page.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting a suspended append writes page.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein reading a cartridge memory chip associated with a data cartridge comprises reading a cartridge memory chip associated with a Linear Tape-Open (LTO) data cartridge, the method further comprising identifying a generation of the cartridge from the cartridge memory chip;

and

when the generation of the cartridge is equal to generation three, modifying a portion of the memory of chip comprises encrypting an error location page.

16. A system comprising:

a data cartridge comprising a cartridge memory chip;

a chip reader to read data from the cartridge memory chip and to write data to the cartridge memory chip; and

a computing device to control the chip reader, wherein the computing device causes the chip reader to read data from the cartridge memory chip of the data cartridge and to modify a portion of memory of the chip to prevent reads from and writes to the data cartridge, without rendering the modification irreversible.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device causes the chip reader to encrypt at least one of an unprotected-page table, an initialization page, a tape write pass page, a tape directory page, an end-of-data page, a cartridge status and tape alert flags page, a suspended append writes page, an error location page, and a writeable contents page of the cartridge memory chip, and to reset cyclical redundancy check (CRC) bytes of an encrypted page of the cartridge memory chip.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device causes the chip reader to modify at least one of a begin-tape number, a begin-servo number, a begin-data number, an end-data number, an end-servo number, and an end-tape number to increase in a non-zero sequence of an initialization page of the cartridge memory chip.

19. A data cartridge comprising:

a magnetic tape to store data; and

a cartridge memory chip, wherein the cartridge memory chip includes at least one page that does not conform to a standard for the data cartridge, wherein the at least one non-standard page prevents a cartridge drive from reading the data stored on the magnetic tape and prevents the cartridge drive from writing data to the magnetic tape, wherein the at least one non-standard page can be modified to allow reading of the data stored on the magnetic tape.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

read a cartridge memory chip associated with a data cartridge; and

modify a portion of memory of the chip to prevent access to data of the data cartridge, without rendering the modification irreversible.