Can NGSCB/Palladium/Trusted Computing Be Also Useful?

"Trusted Computing (TC) continues to be one of the most controversial technologies to come along in many years. Ross Anderson's (anti) TCPA FAQ, Lucky Green's apocalyptic DEFCON presentation, and sites such as notcpa.org and againsttcpa.com are full of predictions of online disaster if TC technology is allowed to go forward. In contrast, support for these technologies seems to come almost exclusively from the corporations and industry groups which are promoting them. Microsoft's effort, called the Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), formerly Palladium, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), formerly TCPA, provide web sites and FAQs intended to provide a positive message, but they are written in careful corporate-speak and make little impact compared to the dire predictions and red-meat fanaticism of the anti-TC sites." This article provides a new perspective on the issue by providing a list of interesting uses for Trusted Computing that go beyond the simple software licensing and Digital Rights Management (DRM) applications. These alternative uses should be abole to demonstrate that even widely criticized features, like "remote attestation" have useful purposes.