Abstract: A block-level storage device is provided that implements a digital rights management (DRM) system. In response to receiving a public key from an associated host system, the storage device challenges the host system to prove it has the corresponding private key to establish trust. This trust is established by encrypting a secure session key using the public key. The host system uses its private key to recover the secure session key. The storage device may store content that has been encrypted according to a content key. In addition, the storage device may encrypt the content key using the secure session key.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a storage device with biometric access includes: a biometric scanner adapted to scan a biological feature of a user to provide a corresponding extracted biometric template; and a storage engine adapted to retrieve an encrypted biometric template from a storage medium and to retrieve a corresponding encrypted content key from the storage medium. The storage engine generates a first key and combines the first key with a media identifier from the storage medium to provide a content key. Using the content key, the storage engine decrypts the retrieved encrypted biometric template. If the extracted biometric template matches the retrieved biometric template, the storage engine grants a user access to content on the storage medium.

Abstract: A method of encrypting data is provided that uses a medium key retrieved from a storage medium. The medium key is combined with another key to generate a combination key. Content is encrypted according to the combination key and written to the storage medium.