The effort to create the encryption specifications, which began six years ago, focused on full-disk encryption, which protects data on a computer by encrypting all of the information on the computer's hard drive regardless of what partition it's on. In order to gain access to the information, users would first have to supply a password, which, in turn, would be used to unlock a key used to decrypt the data.

"You can use these [enabled] drives to childproof your laptop because it operates outside of Windows. Windows hasn't even booted yet. Your kid can't crack it unless [he] has password. You can leave laptop at home and rest assured a 14-year-old can't get on it," Thibadeau said.

IT departments will also be able to repurpose drives using the encryption standard by cryptographically erasing them with a few keystrokes. Cryptographic erasure changes the cryptographic key, thus making data permanently inaccessible.

"The specific way in which encryption is done inside the drive doesn't matter for interoperability," said Jorge Campello. senior manager of architecture and electronics at Hitachi. "What matters is how they drives are configured and how access control is configured. So any drive put, in conforming to these standards, will have the same interface commands."