Newsweek: New Microsoft Program 'Palladium' Next Step in Computer Security

PRnewswire ^ | 6/24/02

[Brian Mosely]

Sunday June 23, 10:51 am Eastern Time

Press Release

SOURCE: Newsweek

Newsweek: New Microsoft Program 'Palladium' Next Step in Computer Security

Ambitious Plan to Let Users Control and Protect Information Will Require Remaking the Architecture of Personal Computers

NEW YORK, June 23 /PRNewswire/ --?Microsoft is developing a new system to improve computer security that will address concerns about privacy, security and intellectual property, Newsweek reports in the current issue. Among the several benefits of the ambitious long-range plan, called "Palladium": it will seal information from attackers, it will block many viruses and worms from your computer and it will allow users to participate in new services and applications that allow control of their personal information even after it leaves their computer. Palladium could even help keep out spam from your inbox. To ensure security, the system requires special security chips, which Intel and Advanced Microdevices have agreed to produce. "It's one of the most technically complex things ever attempted on the PC," says Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds.

• (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020624/NYSU002 )

  Technology Editor Steven Levy previews the new system in the July 1 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, June 24). Though Microsoft does not claim a panacea to security and privacy concerns, the system is designed to dramatically improve the ability to control and protect personal and corporate information. Even more important, Levy reports, it's intended to become a new platform for a host of yet-unimagined services to enable privacy, commerce and entertainment in the coming decades. "This isn't just about solving problems, but expanding new realms of possibilities in the way people live and work with computers," says product manager Mario Juarez.

  The plan will also limit what arrives (and runs on) your computer according to where it comes from and who creates it. It won't let others pretend to be you. The system uses high-level encryption to "seal" data so that snoops and thieves are thwarted. It is also being offered to the studios and record labels as a way to distribute music and film with "digital rights management" (DRM) which could allow users to exercise "fair use" (like making personal copies of a CD) and publishers could at least start releasing works that cut a compromise between free and locked-down.

  One hurdle in establishing this trust technology is getting people to trust Microsoft, Levy writes. To diffuse the inevitable skepticism, the company has begun educational briefings of industry groups, security experts, government agencies and civil-liberties watchdogs and is taking the unusual step of publishing the system's source code. Early opinion-makers are giving them the benefit of the doubt. "I'm willing to take a chance that the benefits are more than the potential downside," says Dave Farber, a renowned Internet guru. "But if they screw up, I'll squeal like a bloody pig."
  

                        (Read Newsweek's news releases at
                http://www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")
  

[zx2dragon]

LOL! MS and security.

[rdb3]

First bag of microwave popcorn is in. Grabbing a Coke. This is going to be fun!

[null and void]

LOL! MS and security.

Darn! Beat me to it!!!

Any bets on how long before the holes show?

Any other bets on how many years before the patches are announced?

[Dominic Harr]

To ensure security, the system requires special security chips, which Intel and Advanced Microdevices have agreed to produce.

Let's take predictions right now how long after (before?) it's release 'Palladium' is hacked?

Another MS promise on security. And this one in 'Newsweek'? Not even a tech mag. What are the odds that 'Newsweek' will be the one to first report on a cutting-edge solution to security?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 32 times?

[hchutch]

One thing to keep in mind. One reason that there may be so may security "fixes" in Microsoft's operating system is the fact that Microsoft is much more widely used than any other system.

Keep in mind, the more versions of attacks you see, eventually, people will run out of tricks they can use. OTOH, I am worried about the possiblity that DOD may shift to open source. Releasing the source code of modifications you may have made to Linux (as an example) is something that strikes me as defeating the purpose of security, particularly if you were to release the source code for a security or anti-virus program.

[null and void]

people will run out of tricks they can use.

In 1899 the head of the US patent office wanted to shut it down because "everything that could be invented had been invented".

Good to see that you have successfully reincarnated....

[Glenn]

Gee. Another thread on which to bash Microsoft. Don't you guys ever sleep?

Look. Nothing is 100% secure. It's a numbers game. Companies put the blockades up and seemingly endless numbers of people work on taking them down. If you believe that anyone can solve computer security 100% for all time, then you are living in dreamland.

But if bashing Microsoft gives you pleasure, knock yourselves out.

[eno_]

I ususally defend Microsoft in this forum, but this is a plan for their own demise. Those "special chips" enable content publishers to control their content in your machine. In other words, you no longer control the content in your machine. If you think even for a moment that this is "security," you are a dupe. This is spyware built in to your hardware. This is effectively the end of personal computing - it no longer belongs to you.

[ibme]

This isn't just about solving problems, but expanding new realms of possibilities in the way people live and work with computers

Translation: New way for MS to gain more control of you computer and the Internet.

[eno_]

Hey Dominic, I bet we can agree on this: If Microsoft implements DRM throughout the system, even hardcore MS fans like me will be installing and running Linux for anything where the security of our own documents matters to us. This is spyware. This is evil mojo.

[Glenn]

Those "special chips" enable content publishers to control their content in your machine.

You can't seriously think that. Remember the screaming fits of rage when Intel included a serial number in their CPUs? The same sorts of claims were made then. Have you read or heard anything that would lead you to believe any of the specious claims have come to pass? The business community would never allow the adoption of a chip like you describe. And the business community is one hell of a user base of what you call "personal" computers.

[Free the USA]

Bump list

[eno_]

Either you control your machine, or the content publisher controls your machine. If you are in control, you can make copies. If you are not in control, then you do not really control what content is monitored. There really is no middle ground in this.

[general_re]

No, no, no, a thousand times no. I hate to say it, but eno_ is exactly, 100% right on the money here folks. This sh*t about how it's for your own protection is a total and complete red-herring folks. This is about locking up the platform in the name of DRM, so that you don't control it any more. MS wants to control it because the RIAA and the MPAA want it controlled. It's that simple.

Believe it, my FRiend - that's exactly what it's all about. You say that people won't accept it, but for people to not accept it, they first have to understand what it is, and know what it's really about. And personal security is just the carrot to cloud over the very real stick in this scheme.

[stainlessbanner]

says Dave Farber, a renowned Internet guru. "But if they screw up, I'll squeal like a bloody pig."

get ready hog-boy dave....

[Genesis defender]

If Microsoft claims Palladium will make your PC the safest it has ever been, hackers worldwide will just see it as a personal challenge. It's like a parent saying to their child, "Don't you dare look in that closet!" You know that child would immediately try anything to get in the closet. I predict Palladium would be cracked within a week of its official release.

[dheretic]

The GPL doesn't require them to release the source code to the public if the DOD doesn't distribute the binaries to the public. Even if a disgruntled employee rolled up a copy of their linux distribution into rpms or debs and put up for download they wouldn't have to. If the organization doesn't officially release the binaries to the public then it doesn't have to release the source. And what you better be more worried about is the fact that a lot of the military runs on Windows NT. Microsoft tried to make a version of Windows NT to replace the custom UNIX that runs our warships and the ship went dead in the water. Despite that, Microsoft is still trying to prove that it can replace UNIX to the military. All I can say is that Bill Gates better have a plan to get his company out of the country and into Canada pretty damn fast if a few of our ships go dead because WinNT crashes and we lose several thousand sailors and marines. There will be a small army of angered civilians with pitch forks, torches and hunting rifles marching on his Redmond campus.

[HAL9000]

I ususally defend Microsoft in this forum, but this is a plan for their own demise. Those "special chips" enable content publishers to control their content in your machine. In other words, you no longer control the content in your machine. If you think even for a moment that this is "security," you are a dupe. This is spyware built in to your hardware. This is effectively the end of personal computing - it no longer belongs to you.

Yes, this is Microsoft's plan to put a Hollywood Lawyer inside every computer.

[RWG]

Nothing is 100% secure...apparently ms is 0% secure from the latest press releases put out by the Danish and other groups.