Microsoft is retooling its Next-Generation Secure
Computing Base (NGSCB) security plan so that enterprise users and
software makers need not rewrite their code to take advantage of
the technology.
In response to feedback from users and software makers, at least
part of the security benefits will be available without the need
tor recode applications, said Mario Juarez, a Microsoft product
manager, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in
Seattle.
He stressed that Microsoft is not discarding previous work or
going back to the drawing board, Juarez stressed.
Microsoft announced NGSCB in 2002. The technology, formerly
known by its Palladium codename, uses a combination of software and
hardware that Microsoft says will boost PC security by providing
the ability to isolate software so it can be protected against
malicious code. The software maker will incorporate the technology
in Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP expected out in 2006.
NGSCB was demonstrated for the first time at last year's WinHEC,
and attendees at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in
Los Angeles last October received a developer preview.
Originally Microsoft had limited NGSCB to provide strong
protection for very small amounts of data through protected agents.
Applications would have to be rebuilt to include a protected agent
that would run in a secured space on the system. Now Microsoft is
working to revise the NGSCB technology so it is possible to secure
more bits without having to rewrite applications, Juarez said.
"We can't provide the level of specifics that we provided last
year because we're still in the process of sorting out the
details," Juarez said. "We will have more specifics later this year
about how the technology will be implemented based on the
feedback."
NGSCB includes a new software component for Windows called a
"nexus", and a chip that can perform cryptographic operations
called the trusted platform module. It also requires changes to a
PC's processor and chipset and the graphics card. The combination
of hardware and software creates a second operating environment
within a PC that is meant to protect the system from malicious code
by providing secure connections between applications, peripheral
hardware, memory and storage.
Critics have argued that NGSCB will curtail users' ability to
control their own PCs and could erode fair-use rights for digital
music and movie files.
Corporate users will likely be first to buy in to the
technology, Microsoft has said. Early applications will include
secure messaging and other applications especially interesting for
corporate PC users.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News
Service