Replies to post #139440 on Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[go-kitesurf]

Illinois Legistature Website:

http://www.ilga.gov/ (go to legislator lookup bottom right)

I suggest anyone in IL to copy paste with some minor edits CM's letter. This personal data mud-dragging is going on too long. Collectively, our goober-natorial system is run by monkeys:

Dear (insert name here)

As a citizen of Illinois most my life, I am increasingly surprised by the sheer amount of issues plaguing our society regarding personal information loss and data theft. Thankfully, I have not had any identity theft incident affect me, but I know several people who have, and it had cost them dearly. As such, you can imagine my concern as to who has my information, and where it is kept. Everything today requires my giving a SSN#, address, bank information, credit card numbers, signatures, etc.

Given the recent number of hacks and security breaches and the emergence of criminal networks who can phish citizen and employees' systems, I've decided that I'm going to contact as many representatives as I can until I find someone that understands this new issue and can assure me that there is a plan in place to secure information systems in our state-owned computers and the corporations that do business here in Illinois.

Here's what security means to me: That every person in the employ of the Illinois government who has computer access to my personally identifiable information has a PC (desktop or laptop, I don't care) with what is called a "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM) inside: a security chip that, if utilized by your IT systems, can make it much harder for hackers to be successful.

https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/home

Such business PCs are readily available from Dell, Gateway, and other major PC manufacturers (50% of all PCs - 100 million PCs with TPMs will ship this year). Are your IT staff buying these systems? If you are buying them, why aren't your systems utilizing the capabilities of trusted computing?

Perhaps, you ARE adopting trusted computing and I don't know it.

But, as I assume that you aren't considering the news I am berated with each and every day. The risks are real. And the ONLY way to mitigate those risks effectively is to make sure that every relevant PC in your organization--those that have access to my data--are using the readily available trusted computing technologies.

As for software security, if the security is not in the hardware, your systems will remain vulnerable.

Best regards,

One of Your Very Concerned Citizens

[helpfulbacteria]

Go, I suspect that you're an intense guy...

On this topic, I am VERY intense. Yes, I have a financial stake in trusted computing by virtue of my WAVX investment. But trusted computing is BIGGER than Wave. (Folks don't wanna hear that, I know.) It's ONE "layer" of the multi-layered security approach that every smart security person sees as necessary. But if they don't know the layer exists, is readily available, and is just waiting to be used, that's a problem.

The thing that gets lost in the back-and-forth froth-and-bile-fest with various of the bashers is this: You can hate Wave and still realize that trusted computing is important and necessary. I would argue that it is INCREASINGLY **vital** when you weigh the risks.

I told this to a friend recently: I don't want to be the guy who THOUGHT about trusted computing right up until the time there was a major cyber-security incident in this country. (And if you scoff at the possibility of this happening, you are CLUELESS.) I want to be the guy who MADE SOME NOISE ABOUT IT.

Best Regards,

c m