14 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005
W
hen you log onto your bank’s
website to check your account
balance, does the bank’s website
know it’s really you who’s logging on? Or
when you’re IMing a 19-year-old coed
from Wichita, are you sure it’s Jenny
you’re chatting with, and not Billy Bob?
In both situations, the answer is no.
Today’s networks already require a
high level of trust between PCs to even
connect to each other over the Internet,
but a consortium of manufacturers
known as the Trusted Computing Group
(member companies include AMD, Intel,
Microsoft, and Sony) is introducing new
technology that can make
absolutely sure you are
who you say you are. Or
at least, that’s what the
consortium wants you to
believe.
A new microcontroller
known as the Trusted
Platform Module (TPM)
is at the heart of this
security scheme, and the
module is already being
integrated into next-gen
motherboards—including
the new dual-core mobo
we just received from
Intel (see page 42).
According to computer-industry analyst
and TCG board member Rob Enderle,
the TPM is currently shipping in IBM
notebooks, and both Dell and HP are
integrating it in a cross-section of
corporate desktops.
In its current implementation, the
TPM provides hardware encryption to
create a secure space on a PC’s harddrive. It’s meant
to serve as a
secure lockbox
for passwords, usernames, fi nancial
information, and so forth. Because
the TPM provides hardware-based
encryption, it should be very diffi cult to
crack. The upshot? If your laptop is ever
stolen, there’s little chance that crucial
data stored in the encrypted lockbox will
be compromised.
The long-term goals of the trusted-
computing platform (TCP), however,
seem more questionable. Eventually, an
overarching software component willallow user-authentication between TPM-
equipped systems—such as when you
log into your online bank account—and
it will even allow you to tie certain
files to a particular PC. Put these two
features together, and it begins to
look like the ultimate digital rights-
management scheme.
Although we welcome enhanceddata security, we’re troubled by the
possible ramifi cations. For example,
vendors could use the TCP to bind
purchased media fi les to a single PC in
a much more secure manner than the
FairPlay scheme that Apple uses for fi les
purchased from iTunes.
But that probably won’t happen,
claims Enderle. “We’d love to say ‘it
won’t be used for DRM,’” Enderle
adds, “but there’s no way to enforce
it.” Seth Schoen, staff technologist for
the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, has a different
take: “Back in 2000,
[the TCG] listed DRM as
an example of trusted
computing,” he says. “It’s
a technology that can be
used for both good and bad
purposes.”
Trusted computing is
still in its infancy, but
it will become much
more important when
Microsoft unveils its
next OS, code-named
Longhorn. Longhorn will
have built-in support for
the TPM, using Microsoft’s proprietary
trusted-computing platform, known
as Next-Generation Secure Computing
Base software (formerly code-named
Palladium). Microsoft has yet to release
details about the NGSCB’s actual
function, saying only that it is actively
working on implementing the software
in its future OS.The dual-core system we received from Intel this month includes
a Trusted Platform Module. Without software support, it’s a
useless feature—for now.QuickStart
The beginning of the magazine,
where articles are smallThe Truth about Trusted
Computing–REVEALED!
The big question is, “Can we trust
trusted computing?”