[Infowarrior] - Army to require TPM built-in security

[Richard Forno]

UPDATED: Army to require built-in security
http://www.fcw.com/article95422-07-26-06-Web
By Cheryl Gerber
Published on July 26, 2006

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. July 27, 2006, to correct
that Winbound, not National Semiconductor, offers the Trusted Platform
Module. National Semiconductor sold this product line to Winbond May 4,
2005.

In the next few weeks, the Army¹s Network Enterprise Technology Command
(Netcom) will announce that the Trusted Platform Module is a servicewide
requirement for hardware-based security in all of its new computers,
according to Army officials. TPM will take advantage of security features in
Microsoft¹s forthcoming Vista operating system.

Before Netcom publicly issued its TechCon guidelines, the Army Small
Computer Program (ASCP) acted on the requirement in its solicitation and
last buy in March. ³We didn¹t want to put computers into the Army inventory
that will have to be replaced prematurely, so Netcom asked us to institute
the requirement before the actual issuance of the TechCon,² said Micki
LaForgia, ASCP project director.

The upcoming technical guidelines require TPM Version 1.2 as a standard Army
configuration baseline for all of the service¹s computers. The service will
apply the standard configuration during a consolidated purchase next month.

Developed by the Trusted Computing Group, TPM is a dedicated security chip
on the motherboard that conforms to the group¹s standard specifications.
Chipmakers have developed TPM versions of their chipsets, such as Intel¹s
LaGrande Technology and Advanced Micro Device¹s Secure Execution Mode. IBM¹s
product has two TPM-compliant chips -- the Embedded Security Subsystem and
ThinkVantage Technology. Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu and Winbond also offer TPM
chips.

The Trusted Computing Group was founded in 2003 to develop vendor-neutral
standard specifications for hardware and software security that works across
multiple platforms. The group has 141 industry members, and many of those
contributed to and instituted the standard specifications.