Need a laptop with a TPM?

re: Need a laptop with a TPM?

Robert Millan — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:37:05 GMT

You don't have to be paranoid, or lack understanding to be worried about Treacherous Computing. When you think about the implications of the evil features it *does* include, it's normal you want to avoid it like the plague.

I'm talking, of course, about remote attestation.

re: Need a laptop with a TPM?

matt — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:04:15 GMT

Once enabled in BIOS, tpm.msc is a reliable mechanism for determing the specs of your TPM.

re: Need a laptop with a TPM?

Harry Johnston — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:47:21 GMT

I suspect the problem is that TPM was originally promoted as the magic bullet that would solve all computer security problems. Nonsense, of course, as was pointed out numerous times. Unfortunately the upshot is that it makes people uneasy if they don't know any of the useful things it actually /can/ do - which I suspect not many people do.

Personally, the only example I've seen of it being useful is BitLocker. Do you have any others?

... just to provide an example of the reasons TPM is treated with suspicion, I remember hearing that it would allow applications to know whether an input keystroke was really from the keyboard or not. That's not a good thing if you're using a computer remotely, or using scripting to perform a silent installation, so I was left with the impression that TPM had the potential to break essential functionality.

Then there's all the FUD, such as the story that only software authorized by Microsoft would run on TPM computers. I knew that one was wrong, but how do you explain that to the paranoid?

So I guess the summary is that customers needing TPM will probably know enough to go looking for it; customers who don't will probably be worried by it. Doesn't add up to a good advertising point. :-)

re: Need a laptop with a TPM?

Chris — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:52:24 GMT

I was extremely frustrated the other day when trying to find a motherboard with the TPM chipset. I was building an office workstation and wanted to be able to leverage Bitlocker to protect the drive contents. As mentioned in this article I was unable to locate an appropriate motherboard and ended up using a usb drive as my key. It's hard to understand why the TPM chipset hasn't taken off.