Interesting Uses for Trusted Computing

An anonymous reader writes "The Unlimited Freedom blog has published a new article describing 'interesting' uses of Trusted Computing. (Google cache here). Trusted Computing, as implemented in Microsoft's NGSCB (Palladium) or the Trusted Computing Group (TCPA), has been one of the most controversial technology proposals of recent years, to put it mildly. But the article on Unlimited Freedom offers a new perspective. The author examines 12 different applications which could benefit from access to Trusted Computing technology. And most of them are uncontroversial or would actually improve privacy and anonymity. Among the examples listed are multi-player games, online casinos, P2P networks, anonymous remailers, distributed computing and mobile agents. The analysis provides an interesting contrast to the usual focus on Trusted Computing's impact on control over digital content."

Comments

Wishful thinking

[Ed Avis]

Applications like online casinos would also benefit from a magical honesty pill which users could take to prevent them from cheating - but it's not going to happen. The idea of trusted computing is to require a specially restricted client machine, but there's no way this could work and be secure enough for something like online gambling. An important rule of online security is *you cannot trust the client*, and even if the standard Dell PC that grandma buys is locked down with all sorts of nastyware, this will do nothing against a determined attacker who is able to program a computer to do what its he, its owner, wants.

Although trusted computing could never provide real security, it can give a lot of inconvenience to 90% of the population to stop them doing things with their computer that Microsoft would prefer them not to do. Just like other copy-protection measures over the years, its purpose is to keep the majority of users under control, not to stop the real criminals.

Trusting Software

[Sloppy]

The analysis provides an interesting contrast to the usual focus on Trusted Computing's impact on control over digital content.

I don't see much contrast. They all have one thing in common: it's about not trusting the machine's owner, and using someone's computer to serve someone else's interests.

A lot of these examples are really creepy, and one point keeps coming up: making sure someone on the other side is running "legitimate" versions of software that are known to be unmodified. I just don't think that's a legitimate thing to care about. Specific software fingerprints shouldn't matter; interfaces should. Insisting on specific software instead of standardized interfaces, holds back innovation and flexibility. It's almost like the very point of "trusted computing" is to help create and sustain software monoculture. I think that's disgusting, and I know it's destructive to progress.