What the f? According to an article over on eWeek the latest models shipping from Apple contain a TPM chip. Amit Singh, a researcher with Google’s tech staff made the discovery. However the Mac OS X does not use the chip. Singh speculates that this was simply part of a delivery from Intel.
However, said Singh, it is possible for individual users to take advantage of the TPM in their Intel-based Macs; Singh has written a TPM device driver for that purpose.Uses for this, Singh said, could include tying data to one machine by encrypting it so that only the machine with the user’s unique TPM can decrypt it.
Or the machine’s owner can encrypt the hard drive so that it only decrypts when connected to the owner’s computer. Both of these could be useful, or even mandated, in certain government or military situations.
Some other researchers agree that the TPM is not in use now, but wonder about the future.
For the full article read on.
Tags: Apple TPM, Mac OS X, Trusted Computing, Amit Singh, Google
