Trends and Directions in Trusted Computing: Models, Architectures and Technologies

Until recently, all the security measures have addressed servers or networks while clients or network endpoints have missed the required security concerns relatively. Most of the mechanisms safeguarding endpoints (clients) are software based. Making endpoints survive in open and reasonably exposed environments-like internet-demand that client security should stand by a tried and true dependence and merely software based mechanisms are inadequate in providing the desired security level. Trusted Computing (TC) initiatives solve these security problems through operating environments, applications and secure hardware changes to the personal computer. Using secure hardware as a basis for trusted computing provides a level of relevance since hardware-based security is mooted difficult to compromise than conventional approaches. Therefore, TC provides a powerful set of features to implement applications such as secure auctions, integrity measurement, and biometric identifcation. In this paper, we present a detailed discussion of the different approaches towards a trusted computing platform; examine these approaches and provide a set of attack mechanisms enforced if trusted initiatives are not employed at user-level. The future directions along this line of research are also conferred.