Comments on: IBM bakes security into processors

Secure Blue adds encryption technology to processors, promising better security for data on PCs and portable devices.

[jatos]

Whos been nicking ideas?

Isn't a similar principle used in the XBOX 360?

[bugmenot]

Only way of getting DRM on Linux

It can't be don in software as the software and the system must remain open. Hardware decoders are the only way of getting DRM on Linux. The interface to the decoder would have to be open, and there'd have to be mechanisms for moving keys as you change platform.

[sauce214]

Hardware Upgrades

What happens if you want to upgrade your hardware in the future or if you have a hardware failure. Will all your data that is encrypted on the hd not be accessible with a different cpu?

[requiem--2008]

That's what backups are for...

...you do have backups, don't you?

(Seriously, if your hard disk crashes and starts
plowing furrows into the platters, you'll have
the same problem.)

[requiem--2008]

So what does this protect against?

I can see it working to stop someone reading
data off the RAM chips if they got them out of
the machine and into cold storage fast enough,
but I can get very close to level of protection
through software alone.

What I wonder is, does this do anything to
protect against malicious software? I suspect
not, but the article does not say.