Pre-boot authentication

Pre-Boot Authentication (PBA) or Power-On Authentication (POA)^[1] serves as an extension of the BIOS or boot firmware and guarantees^{[citation needed]} a secure, tamper-proof^{[citation needed]} environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents anything^{[citation needed]} being read from the hard disk such as the operating system until the user has confirmed he/she has the correct password or other credentials.^[2]

Benefits of Pre-Boot Authentication

• Full disk encryption outside^{[citation needed]} of the operating system level ^[2]
• Encryption of temporary files^{[citation needed]}
• Data-at-rest protection^{[citation needed]}

How Pre-Boot Authentication Works

Generic Boot Sequence

1. Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)
2. Master boot record (MBR) partition table
3. Pre-boot authentication (PBA)
4. Operating system (OS) boots

A PBA environment serves as an extension of the BIOS or boot firmware^{[citation needed]} and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents^{[citation needed]} Windows or any other operating system from loading until the user has confirmed he/she has the correct password to unlock the computer. That trusted layer eliminates the possibility^{[citation needed]} that one of the millions of lines of OS code can compromise the privacy of personal or company data^{[citation needed]}.

Pre-Boot Authentication Technologies

Combinations with Full Disk Encryption

Pre-Boot Authentication is generally provided^{[citation needed]} by a variety of full disk encryption vendors, but can be installed separately^{[citation needed]}. Some FDE solutions can function without Pre-Boot Authentication, such as hardware-based full disk encryption. However, without some form of authentication, encryption provides little protection^{[citation needed]}.

Authentication Methods

The standard complement of authentication methods exist for Pre-Boot Authentication including:

1. Something you know (i.e. username / password)
2. Something you have (i.e. smart card or other token)
3. Something you are (i.e. biometric data)

References