Chapter 1. Trusted (Computing) Platforms: An Overview

A platform is any computing device—a PC, server, mobile phone, or any appliance capable of computing and communicating electronically with other platforms. In this chapter, you'll discover the reasons why Trusted Platforms—also called Trusted Computing Platforms—are being developed and read a summary of the technology and its evolution. The chapter is intended to provide a wide audience with a standalone summary of Trusted Platforms and their context. The conceptual and political framework have been included in this chapter for your convenience. Boxes will be used to highlight important summaries.

This first chapter covers the following points:

• A brief overview of what Trusted Platforms provide

• Consideration of what “trust” means in terms of technology, in order to explain how the technology described in this book can be said to provide “trusted platforms”

• Assessment of the need for Trusted Platforms and why such platforms are important in a business context

• A summary of the main features of Trusted Platforms, including the protection of users' privacy

• A look ahead to a world in which Trusted Platforms are ubiquitous

Note that this chapter provides motivation and context for the book, so those readers who are familiar with the background to TCPA technology may wish to move on to Chapter 2.