Patent ID: 7882354

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a host; a storage device coupled to the host, the storage device interacting with storage media to store and retrieve information from the storage media, the storage device comprising an encryption module, the encryption module enabling encryption and decryption of data stored on storage media; and, a device driver executing on the host, the device driver checking for encryption related information from the storage device, the encryption related information being generated in response to a command issued by the host, when encryption related information is present, the device driver facilitating encryption independent of whether the host is encryption enable; a key manager, the key manager serving keys to the storage device via the device driver; and, a proxy, the proxy establishing a communication path between the storage device and the key manager to facilitate serving keys to the storage device, wherein the encryption related information comprises a status indication issued by the storage device indicating that an encryption operation is needed to be performed before the command can be executed by the storage device.