Information security disclosure flaps resulting from lost laptops have prompted US Federal authorities to mandate the use of full disc encryption on government-owned computers.

The decision, guided by a presidential mandate (PDF) published in June, has led to a competition to see what products might be selected for the ultra-lucrative project. The deployment of full-disc encryption on hundreds of thousands of government computers will raise the profile of disc encryption technology as never before. The 90-day evaluation is due to to end in March but there's a pre-condition that competing products need to have already obtained FIP 140-2 certification.

Disk encryption vendors participating in the Contest include Seagate, Mobile Armor, Pointsec, SafeNet and Credant. More on the contest requirements and other related documents can be found here. ®