Hardware security in PCs to accompany new Windows

[James McIntosh]

What do you think ?

Is this as wonderful as the article says ?

Is Microsoft as wonderful as the article says ?


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews/TechAtHome/2005/04/25/1012536-ap.html

Tech @ Home

April 25, 2005

Hardware security in PCs to accompany new Windows

By ELIZABETH GILLESPIE

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp.'s ambitious plan to keep data safe on PCs
will make a scaled-down debut in the next release of Windows, though the
operating system's most anticipated improvements in graphics appear to
mirror what's now available from rival Apple Computer Inc.

The long-delayed Windows upgrade, code-named Longhorn and now expected in
December 2006, has been touted as the most significant update to the
ubiquitous operating since Windows 95 launched in 1995. In a speech Monday,
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates showed off several features.

Gates demonstrated Longhorn's new graphics, which include better ways to
visualize data, including seeing through windows that are stacked atop each
other, more natural file organization and faster searching. He also
promised better performance and reliability.

And though he spent only a few minutes on security in his speech, Gates
said it was the most important improvement and had received the most
attention by developers.

"If you had to take one area where we put the most investment in, the
security area would be the head of that list by a significant amount," he
told the audience at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.

Longhorn is the first release of Windows to implement Microsoft's vision of
boosting security by placing cryptographic keys in special silicon chips
that would be built into PCs.

Currently, such encryption locks are stored as data on a hard drive. It is,
however, much more difficult to crack a chip.

The security chip in computers running Longhorn would thus render sensitive
files inaccessible if someone tried to boot the machine from a portable
hard drive or floppy disk.

The security initiative - once code-named Palladium but later christened
the Next Generation Secure Computing Base, or NGSCB - was announced in 2002
and was quickly attacked by privacy advocates, Microsoft critics and others
as a mechanism by which commercial interests might wrest control of PCs
from their owners.

Some claimed it would enable strict copyright protection schemes for music,
movies and software. It also could restrict the tinkering that has driven
computer industry innovation over the years, they said.

But secure startup isn't expected to be as controversial as chip-based
rights management. Microsoft has not said, however, how else Longhorn might
interact with the chip, though security features are expected that would
make it more difficult for online criminals to break into PCs.

Neil Charney, director of product management in Microsoft's Windows group,
said the secure startup feature is most likely to be used by business
computers, especially in laptops that store sensitive data that could come
back to haunt companies after a theft.

A number of companies, including Microsoft, are working together to beef up
security using a combination of hardware and software. NGSCB is just one
approach, though it's likely to have the most impact given Microsoft's
dominance.

Some PC vendors, including IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., have been
offering PCs with security chips for years. On Monday, HP announced it will
support Longhorn's implementation on some of its business computers and
workstations.

Gates also briefly discussed other security enhancements in Longhorn,
including user accounts for shared machines that don't always have the
highest privileges but are flexible enough to allow software installation.

The bulk of Gates' speech covered Longhorn's flashier visual and
organizational features - which Apple CEO Steve Jobs described last week as
"shamelessly" copying his company's Mac OS X operating system.

"They can't even copy fast," Jobs said at his company's shareholder meeting.

Indeed, many of the features that Gates demonstrated Monday - including
shadowed, translucent windows as well as fancy, stutter-free animations -
have been a part of the Mac OS since it was released in March 2001.

Microsoft shares closed at $24.99 US, up a penny, in Monday trading on the
Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $23.82 to
$30.20.


Jim McIntosh   416-292-8126   <jemcinto-cpI+UMyWUv+w5LPnMra/2Q at public.gmane.org>


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