Trusted Platform Module from Infineon

Ruffian · 2008-11-15T18:19:20+00:00

Snake oil or a good addition to a secure system?"Trusted Platform Module from Infineon: hardware based security microcontroller that stores keys, passwords and digital certificates and protects this data from external software attacks and physical theft.""TPM offers state-of-the-art security features, such as an active shielding that sends a continuous stream of random data over the surface of the chip. Apart from active shielding, the chip features the true random number generator (RNG), hardware accelerated RSA crypto algorithms with key lengths of up to 2,048 bit and hash algorithms required by the Trusted Computing Group specification." "The basis for the Infineon TPM is the mature technology of the 66P secure controllers. In addition to the well proven, true random number generator and asymmetric RSA coprocessor (which was upgraded to 2048-bit key length) Infineon has realized the hash coprocessor (SHA-1 and MD5) and the LPC interface. Security measures such as active shielding, as well as frequency and temperature sensors, are part of the product just as they are in all the other 66P based products. This gives the Infineon TPM the highest level of security protection in the world.""GIGABTE Ultra TPM provides an added layer of security by allowing users to store their digital signature key on a USB thumb drive, so when they step away from their system, they can take the key with them, locking up their data and preventing unauthorized access while they are away. (Optional backup of key stored in BIOS in case of misplaced key.)" ?folderId=db3a304412b407950112b41656522039?folderId=db3a304412b407950112b41656522039&fileId=db3a304412b407950112b41665322069

Rob Warnock 17 years ago

+--------------- | >> You can usually use someone else's hammer without too much worry that | >> it will only hit nails belonging to the owner of the hammer. | >

| >That one's a keeper - I shall quote it frequently (without attribution, of | >course :-) | | Note that it's not entirely a joke. There's a real issue that | missiles may refuse to target friends of the manufacturer's country, | even if the buyer of said missiles doesn't know that.

+---------------

Indeed. This was depicted fictionally in the (excellent, IMHO!) movie "The Fifth Element", when one of the Mangalore warriors attempts to cheat Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (an arms manufacturer) by shooting him with one of his own "smart" guns... which does nothing.

[He also conveniently fails to mention "the red (yellow?) button" to them, allowing them to accidentally activate the weapon's self-destruct, killing most of their band.]

-Rob

----- Rob Warnock

627 26th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607

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Phil Carmody 17 years ago

IIRC, it's the Fourth Directive from Robocop(1987), which predates that Besson abomination by a decade.

Phil

I tried the Vista speech recognition by running the tutorial. I was amazed, it was awesome, recognised every word I said. Then I said the wrong word ... and it typed the right one. It was actually just detecting a sound and printing the expected word! -- pbhj on /.

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Rob Warnock 17 years ago

+--------------- | snipped-for-privacy@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) writes: | > Gordon Burditt wrote: | > +--------------- | > | Note that it's not entirely a joke. There's a real issue that | > | missiles may refuse to target friends of the manufacturer's country, | > | even if the buyer of said missiles doesn't know that. | > +--------------- | >

| > Indeed. This was depicted fictionally in the (excellent, IMHO!) movie | > "The Fifth Element", when one of the Mangalore warriors attempts to | > cheat Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (an arms manufacturer) by shooting | > him with one of his own "smart" guns... which does nothing. | | IIRC, it's the Fourth Directive from Robocop(1987), which predates | that Besson abomination by a decade.

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Ah, yezzz! Directive Four, which prevents Robocop from arresting any senior executive of Omni Consumer Products (OCP), developers of Robocop, including division president Dick Jones (one of the bad guys).

Anyway, it's an old theme in the science-fiction literature: Be careful who makes your weapons; they may not work against their makers. [And, yes, this *is* still on-topic with TPM/DRM...]

-Rob

----- Rob Warnock

627 26th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607

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