Major PC Makers Adopt Trusted Computing Schema

An anonymous reader wrote to let us known about a News.com story regarding so-called trusted computing, and its adoption by the major PC manufacturers. From the article: "The three largest computer makers--Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM--have started selling desktops and notebooks with so-called trusted computing hardware, which allows security-sensitive applications to lock down data to a specific PC." Interestingly, while Microsoft is said to be behind the idea support won't be forthcoming for trusted computing until they release Longhorn next year, making this a hardware-vendor lead initiative.

Comments

Before posting any comments...

[Anonymous Coward]

..please read this:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

this: http://www.gentoo.org/news/20050202-trustedgentoo. xml and, linked from there, this:

http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/tcpa_rebutta l.pdf

rms' writing about trusted computing

[latroM]

rms on trusted computing

Re:The end is coming and people want it!?!?

[tabkey12]

I think it is important that you read this document from IBM which points out that the technology they will be introducing will not lock you down to a specific Operating System.

Microsoft's Version Here

[MLopat]

Just in case anyone wants to see the software side of what's happening with trusted computing, here's Microsoft's plans to integrate certain software technologies with these new hardware components. It's called Microsoft Palladium.

Re:Your computer won't trust you

[FunWithHeadlines]

Sadly, you are not wrong. From the Stallman article I linked:

"Treacherous computing puts the existence of free operating systems and free applications at risk, because you may not be able to run them at all. Some versions of treacherous computing would require the operating system to be specifically authorized by a particular company. Free operating systems could not be installed. Some versions of treacherous computing would require every program to be specifically authorized by the operating system developer. You could not run free applications on such a system. If you did figure out how, and told someone, that could be a crime."

The Right To Read

[roman_mir]

Make sure to read this:
The Right To Read by RMS.

TC

[northcat]

Here is what the opponents of Trusted Computing have to say.

Re:what does this really mean?

[rincebrain]

As I understand it:
The current implementation is optional, and you don't have to even enable the security crap. I know I have my IBM Thinkpad with one of these chips in it, and I just flicked it off in the BIOS when I found out. The keys are user-controlled, as I recall, not manufacturer-distributed.

The fear is that either some big company M****s*ft will make software which won't run if you don't have trusted computer installed, and/or that Microsoft's implementation [Palladium, or whatever they're calling it five minutes from now] will be far more restrictive.

There was a great post on this a few weeks ago the last time a trusted computing article showed up, with some really helpful links...I can't seem to find it right now, though. Go check it out if you're worried.

Personally...it scares the shit out of me.

Re:The end is coming and people want it!?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but there's a huge difference between "You can't boot Linux" and "You can't open hardware-locked WMA/DOC files". The former is tinfiolhelmetry, while the latter is much more subtle and invasive.

You've gotta respect Stallman's power of PageRank:

[Hobart]

The Free Software Foundation's article entitled Can you trust your computer?

...is the first Google hit for "treacherous" :-)

And for those who are going "huh, what?" the short version is this: So called 'Trusted Computing' is the only way that companies that want to prevent you from accessing data on your own computer can make it happen -- DVDs that you can't screen capture or skip the ads in, music files you can't save to your old music player, text data that you can't export to your screen reader, etc.

Although unlikely, this could conceivably also be used to prevent you from running whatever OS or software you want on a particular PC.

As such, Richard Stallman, in his essay (which you should read, above), has chosen to refer to it as "Treacherous computing", kind of the geeks own version of the "Santorum" campaign.

Re:The end is coming and people want it!?!?

[4of12]

I know very few computer users who are for the RIAA/MPAA/MSFT/GOV metroplex.

I know a lot more computer users who don't know jack, but do want to see that video of Michael Jackson, Brittney, etc. and will follow the helpful wizard into the path of *AA compliance for their "computer".

Re:Backups?

[Alsee]

What happens when your PC dies?

I read the hardware technical specification. The rules are quite explicit:

If your chip dies, your data must be irretrievable. Period.

If your computer has *not yet died* and you wish to upgrade to a new computer, you may only do so to a computer using the exact same model chip from the exact same manufacturer, and only with the assistance of that manufacturer, and only after destroying the data on the original machine. Under those conditions and only those conditions may you activate your files and software on the new machine.

If that manufacturer goes out of business or they no longer make that model chip in new computers, then it is impossible to upgrade your data and software to a new machine. When the old computer dies you data dies with it. You also have to pay for a new copy of any Trusted-installed software AGAIN for the new computer.

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