IBM Proposes Data Security Standard For Removable Media Enhancement

IBM is backing a standards proposal that would allow generic functions to be programmed into removable media such as DVDs, flash memory and Zip drives that, among other things, could limit what a user copies to or from his computer. IBM . . . IBM is backing a standards proposal that would allow generic functions to be programmed into removable media such as DVDs, flash memory and Zip drives that, among other things, could limit what a user copies to or from his computer. IBM had previously proposed the controversial Copy Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) standard to the T13 committee of the Washington-based National Committee for Information Technology Standards, which oversees Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interfaces. Such interfaces are used by a computer's motherboard to communicate with its disk storage devices.

But IBM said it pulled its backing of CPRM in favor of a "generic functionality" proposal submitted by Curtis Stevens, a technical editor at Phoenix Technologies Ltd. in San Jose, at the T13 group's meeting late last month.

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