Microsoft and Partners Announce Chip-to-Cloud Pluton Processor

[engine]

Microsoft, and its silicon technology partners, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has announced a new Microsoft Pluton security processor. This chip-to-cloud security technology is devised to increase security of future Windows 10 PCs.

Our vision for the future of Windows PCs is security at the very core, built into the CPU, where hardware and software are tightly integrated in a unified approach designed to eliminate entire vectors of attack. This revolutionary security processor design will make it significantly more difficult for attackers to hide beneath the operating system, and improve our ability to guard against physical attacks, prevent the theft of credential and encryption keys, and provide the ability to recover from software bugs.

[microsoft.com...]

[JorgeV]

And one day, someone will find an exploit, which will not be able to be patched, since it will be at the CPU level (teasing)

[engine]

At least it's progress to help avoid some of the problems with current hardware.

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[graeme_p]

It will also ensure MS has control of what the processor runs. They may well not allow other OSes and lock the hardware into Windows.

[Skeep2020]

It is important to increase the security of future Windows 10 PCs, how about the common update errors, how is Microsoft planning to reduce them?

[engine]

True, graeme_p, it'll increase control by MS, but, really, it and the chip partners have been battered in the last few years with the current setup which has been around for years. It's not kept pace with the skills and persistence of the hackers.
There's a great deal to gain by controlling zombie distributed systems.

Time for this technology to come sooner rather than later, methinks.

[graeme_p]

@engine so we need MS to take control of PCs to ensure they are secure because MS has made them so insecure that zombie PCs are a huge problem.

Things like secureboot and TPM were supposed to solve these problems and failed. As @JorgeV says its going to be worse when this does get hacked.

[engine]

@graeme_p, doesn't it already have "control"
I know I already don't have control of my windows10 pc.
Don't misunderstand me, I really don't want anyone else but me in control, but that just isn't the case, and it's not just windows.

[graeme_p]

@engine MS does not have control at the hardware level. It does not control any of my PCs at all apart from the odd MS app I run - only Skype regularly, I have VS code installed by never use it.

With control at the level it can prevent people using other OSes - which is the biggest problem from my point of view.

Its also likely to be a forerunner to more pervasive control: it will almost certainly lead to software restricted to what is in the (current) app store etc. - iOS style.

It also prevents other security mechanisms from being used. If I needed to run Windows now, I would probably run it under Qubes (which was recommended in a another recent thread). If Qubes cannot run, I could not do that.

The more deeply security mechanisms are controlled by American companies the more of a worry how they might be subverted it is for everyone in the rest of the world. It is already a worry, but the more the control the more the worry.