Trusted Computing Group

TCG founding member and active participant Microsoft is marking the tenth birthday of its Trustworthy Computing initiative. Not to be confused with TCG’s vendor-independent Trusted Computing work, Trustworthy Computing is Microsoft’s own effort to raise the bar in computing security, privacy, and reliability.

Let’s raise a toast to Trustworthy Computing on this occasion. Look how far we’ve come! Ten years ago, Bill Gates wrote a memo setting Trustworthy Computing as the company’s highest priority. What an audacious statement! At the time, most computer companies had security low on their priority list if it was there at all. Now security is a high priority for most if not all computer companies. And Microsoft has truly turned its words into actions, greatly boosting the security, privacy, and reliability of their own products, many of which support Trusted Computing Group specifications.

The effects of Microsoft’s efforts have not been limited to Microsoft products. Some companies have improved their security as a competitive response to Microsoft’s actions. Further, Microsoft has made its Security Development Lifecycle available for anyone else to employ. And they have supported the move to adopt fundamental security improvements from TCG such as Trusted Platform Module, Trusted Network Connect, and Self Encrypting Drives. Microsoft has been an early adopter of these technologies, adding support to Microsoft products and pushing for vendor-neutral security technologies that benefit all.

So thanks to Microsoft for ten years of information security activism. And thanks to the many TCG members and others in the security and computing industry that have heeded the call to embed more security into products and to give users tools to protect their systems, networks and data.  Looking ahead, attackers continue to innovate and cooperate. As more things depend on information technology, we must all do more to improve our defenses. Is your CEO ready to declare security Priority #1? And if not, why not?