Toshiba invents self-erasing hard drives

What can you do if your computer gets lost or stolen and all your personal data is there for the taking? Basically, pray for a miracle and the kindness of strangers - admittedly not much of a battle plan. But engineers at Toshiba have figured out a way to scramble your personal data if it falls into the wrong hands.

The company will soon introduce a line of self-encrypting hard drives that Toshiba says will be able to wipe away - or prevent access - a computer user's data should the drives get compromised by getting connected to an unknown and undefined computer or other system. The first batch of drives will be designed for use in copiers, printers, point-of-sale systems, PCs and other computing devices. Testing is slated to begin at the end of this month with mass production beginning later this summer. You can read more about Toshiba's plans here.