Next-gen Intel vPro platform to get hardware encryption
Desperate Danbury
IDF Intel's next-generation 'Eaglelake' chipset family, due for release next year, will feature a built-in data protection engine with the ability to encrypt all the files on your hard drive, the chip giant announced this week.
It calls the engine 'Danbury'. Together with an chipset-integrated Trusted Platform Module, Danbury will be part of Eaglelake chipsets for vPro-branded PCs. It'll be part of the third generation of vPro, codenamed 'McCreary', which will also feature Intel's Advanced Management Technology (AMT) 5.0.
Intel's McCreary: integrated hard drive encryption
Danbury provides a hardware encryption engine for drive-level data security. The encryption keys are created and maintained within the chipset itself, so there's no need to place them in memory where they could be accessed by malware.
Danbury ties into the TPM, which is one reason why Intel plans to move that module into the chipset packaging. Plenty of desktop and laptop PCs already contain a TPM, implemented as a separate chip. Integrating it will help reduce system costs.
It'll be left to software to provide a front end to all this for the user, Intel said, presumably through utilities and the operating system.
McCreary is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2008.
COMMENTS
Recovery + SOL
To be honest if your mobo dies and you do not have a backup of your data that is on your laptop then you deserve to lose your data :)
Encryption is not security
Encryption is just a technology, so much more is needed to 'secure' something. Encryption alone is a combination lock looking for a safe. Admittedly this will be an impressive combination lock but still the rest of the architecture needs to be secured somewhat before it gets into tinfoil hat territory.
Disaster waiting to happen.
The MS helpforums are peppered with desparate pleas from users's who've turned-on EFS while not understanding it properly, and lost all their data.
This is potentially much worse, it could for example lead to a situation where a simple mobo replacement (with identical model) means all the data on the HD is lost. Have Intel considered their responsibility to their resellers here? Such a situation is simply not acceptable, repair-facilities HAVE to be able to replace defective parts with identical components, without this resulting in a disaster. If they cannot do this, then effectively the computer's warranty is meaningless.
The Intel store is empty.....?
"It'll be left to software to provide a front end to all this for the user, Intel said, presumably through utilities and the operating system."
Translation: Help, does anyone know how to secure information?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
First imitating AMD's 86_64 architecture and alliances with FPGA partners.
Now imitating Via's on-chi[p true RNG, encryption and RSA acceleration.
Innovation the Intel way. What's next? Imitating Cell?
