Trusted Computing Group

Happy New Year to our colleagues in computing and IT security! We survived a rough decade that included some of the worst hacks, attacks and data breaches ever recorded, many of which could have been prevented by using widely available and inexpensive security tools like the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). If you have not checked out the TPM recently or not familiar with it, read a few of our white papers on how IT administrators in healthcare and other industries have turned on the TPM and are using it to prevent root kits, enable strong authentication and prevent serious data losses and other attacks.

Speaking of data losses, last week at Storage Visions, TCG and its member companies showed a number of hard drives based on TCG's trusted storage specifications. These self-encrypting drives instantly and transparently encrypt data on the fly in the drive, preventing attackers from getting to data via the operating system. If the drive is detached from the system, it is useless to a thief. These drives can be coupled with TPMs to add strong authentication, and drives are being shipped in PCs worldwide, including those from Dell. The TCG specification applies to hard drives, SSDs and is being used in data center storage devices.

Also at Storage Visions, Jorge Campello of Hitachi and chair of TCG's Storage Work Group spoke about the increasing need for storage security. His presentation, "The Era of Self-Encrypting Drives," is available for download.

You might recall that in December, TCG announced its second regional forum. This forum will support the TCG membership in the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan and was announced at an industry event. You can read more about this event and view materials at http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/media_room/events/past_events.

What's coming up? March 1-5, TCG and members will participate in RSA Conference, San Francisco. Join us on Monday, March 1, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. for our first Security Playground. Play with solutions for self-encrypting drives, authentication and network security and join us for quick updates on those topics. Want to see more? On Tuesday, March 2, TCG will host a special invite-only party! Collect your invitation at the Security Playground. Learn more at TCG's RSA Conference San Francisco Events Page.