The application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) on the Seagate's FDE.2 HDD which performs AES encryption has been certified by NIST. More info @: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQM05230072007-1.htm NIST Certificate available @: http://csrc.nist.gov/cryptval/aes/aesval.html