Infineon Security Platform Solution

Advantages of using the Trusted Platform Module

The phenomenal growth of the Internet and the trend of corporate networks expanding to allow access to customers and suppliers from outside the corporate firewall have laid emphasis on the issue of security. While electronic forms of identification are taking over from paper-based and face-to-face identification, the issues of security and privacy have become a major cause of concern.  However, these issues appear to have found their solution in public-key-based applications. A few examples of the kinds of services that public-key technology facilitates are secure transmission of information over public networks, digital signature to ensure authenticity of e-mail, and authentication of a server to a client and vice-versa.

Communication over the internet is growing continuously. Many applications, such as those intended for e-commerce, are based on trust in the communication partner and the reliability of the connection. You have to provide authenticity, integrity, confidentiality and privacy. With the development of TCG (Trusted Computing Group), a powerful business initiative was launched. Its objective is to increase confidence in internet security. TCG has defined a device - known as the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) - which will assume responsibility for many important security functions.

The Trusted Platform Module is the root-of-trust in a given platform (such as on desktop or notebook computers). If built into a computer that runs an operating system that is aware of this chip, it can check the system integrity and authenticate third-party users who would like to access the security features, while remaining under complete control of its primary user. Thus, privacy and confidentiality are assured. With Trusted Platform Module based platforms, it will be possible for the first time to create the basis for a world-wide public key infrastructure (PKI). This in turn will ensure the security of many applications for private and corporate environments in particular, while making other types of applications possible for the first time.

The activities of TCG and the resulting security standard demonstrate the requirements for today's security technology. The Trusted Platform Module architecture is designed to provide both the highest available security standards, based on verified security technology, and easy system integration by providing a complete security solution. The Infineon Trusted Platform Module offers the cryptographic implementations of RSA and hash algorithms (SHA-1 and  MD-5) for highest possible performance, as well as a true random number generator (TRNG). It is a shielded device with the highest possible security levels against SPA (simple power analysis) and DPA (differential power analysis).

Until recently, computer users have stored their private keys and certificates on the hard drives of their computers, leaving the information exposed to attackers and people who could gain physical access to the machine. By contrast, the Trusted Platform Module provides a tamper-proof storage medium for secure information.

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