Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 04:43:10 +0100
From: JMBCV <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Trusted Computing news
Sender: owner-cryptography@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: cryptography@xxxxxxxxxxxx, cypherpunks@xxxxxxx
New Scientist reports on a new document released by the Trusted Computing
Group, http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/. This is the reconstitued
and renamed TCPA, which triggered such controversy a year ago. The
article, http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994171, reports:
The US music industry's legal clampdown on online music piracy could
soon be supplemented by technical measures that will make it harder
to make unauthorised copies of digital files.
A new set of programming standards, released by a consortium of
the world's largest software and hardware companies on Tuesday,
specify methods for developing software for hardware security modules
increasingly being built into many personal computers.
The Trusted Computing Group's new security standards promise to shore
up personal computer security by linking software to tamper-resistant
hardware modules in which cryptographic keys and other tools are
stored. This could be used to increase the security of files or
authenticate messages.
The new document, described in the press release at
https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/press/news/TSS_IDF_release_final_sept_12_2003.pdf,
is an API for the Trusted Software Stack (TSS), which will interface to
the secure hardware component, called a TPM (trusted platform module).
In other news, Sun Microsystems has announced that it is joining the TCG.
Amazingly, Whit Diffie, a well known privacy advocate with cypherpunk
leanings, is quoted in the press release:
"As the world becomes more connected, secure computing is fundamental
to protecting our critical infrastructure, our enterprise networks,
and our personal computers." said Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Chief Security
Officer, Sun Microsystems. "Sun is committed to security and open
standards. We're excited to join TCG as a Promoter Member and help
to move security into the technologies on which the future depends."
Back in April, Diffie was questioning the goals of Trusted Computing,
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030415S0013. Wonder what changed
his mind?
A final note, Ross Anderson's so-called Trusted Computing FAQ was updated
last month to version 1.1, http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html.
It's still full of utterly unsupported allegations, such as the claim
that TCPA was going to delete "pirated" applications and documents.
And of course there is no apology for those charges which he has had to
eliminate or water down from the first version of the FAQ. Read at your
own risk; it's not exactly a "no spin zone".
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