Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for protecting data on a storage medium by encrypting the data to be recorded on the storage medium with a password. This method comprises a step of, generating, for changing key data on each memory unit by one password, the key data, thereafter encrypting the key data with the password and writing the encrypted data to the storage medium, and a step of encrypting the data with the key data and encrypted data to the storage medium. The method further comprises a step of reading the encrypted key data from the storage medium, a step of decoding the encrypted key data with the password, and a step of decoding the data on the storage medium with the decoded key data. The encryption is done by using the key data generated separately from the password, and it is therefore feasible to prevent the password from being analyzed by decoding a cipher text.