Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

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TPM is merely security theatre

http://blogoftrust.com/tpm-is-merely-security-theatre/420

Posted by Ken Y-N on October 18th, 2009 at 03:49pm

While reading up another article that I am going to be posting about later this week, I followed a link to a FAQ on the TrueCrypt web site regarding TPM containing this paragraph:

The only thing that TPM is almost guaranteed to provide is a false sense of security (even the name itself, "Trusted Platform Module", is misleading and creates a false sense of security). As for real security, TPM is actually redundant (and implementing redundant features is usually a way to create so-called bloatware). Features like this are sometimes referred to as security theater.

This is talking, I think, about BitLocker-like solutions where the TPM holds a decryption key for the operating system to use, and I would admit that BitLocker is not the best example of a TPM application, but the Opal specification for full disk encryption is in no way security theatre, and indeed has the potential to put TrueCrypt out of business. Having said that, TrueCrypt is actually open source, so there is no business to put out…


1 Comment for "TPM is merely security theatre"

1. Dave | October 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 am

TPM is the root of trust for trusted computing going forward. It will become ubiquitous as the Internet further develops. The only people that mistrust TPMs are software company’s that are threatened due to their impending demise