Wow ... I am getting old and jaded.<p>I was so into locking down systems, making sure I knew where every packet was going, not trusting anything.
Meanwhile I'm also "wardriving", phreaking with a red box, running an underground BBS ... all sorts of stuff. I had one of those fancy t-shirts with the export-restricted RSA encryption source code printed it. Because, why not?<p>Now I just quickly skim a 2 year old article about Windows 11 and TPM again, on a Windows 11 device, and have just enough left in me to post a comment.<p>> You see, the PC (emphasis on personal here) is in a way the last bastion of digital freedom you have. The TPM requirement of Windows 11 furthers the agenda to protect the PC against you, its owner. These keys are then cryptographically tied to the vendor who issued them, and as such, not only does a TPM uniquely identify your machine anywhere in the world, but content distributors can pick and choose what TPM vendors they want to trust.<p>Every time these technologies come out, there are similar "it's all over" scenarios. But so far it hasn't been all over, and I've been around a while. I recall Intel Management Engine (ME) really piquing my interest for a bit. So my computer now has a computer running on it, that still runs when I turn it off, has access to the system hardware, including memory, the contents of the display, keyboard input, and the network? And the keys to the kingdom are secure ... they haven't been shared with anyone else who may be highly interested in having those ... ?<p>Hello, anyone ... I'm still secure, right? ... right!? Forget it, I'll just disable it. Oh. Nevermind. Wait ... what? Intel ME has a ring −3 rootkit??! Just ... ah, forget it ... what's on TV?<p>And then AMD shows up with their own. At least that one can be disabled by BIOS. I think? Hope?<p>> Did we mention that a TPM isn’t going to protect you from UEFI malware that was planted on the device by a rogue agent at manufacture time?<p>If you are the target of a rogue agent at manufacturing time, that is way past "game over". If they want it they're going to get it and you're not going to stop it by having, or not having, things like TPM on a Windows machine. I can't tell if this is more about losing the ability to watch HD video and DRM, or if nation states are coming after you. Those are slightly different. I'd personally prefer neither but I'd settle for the former. If it's security then it's more Tor/Tails and a USB key than Windows.<p>Certain groups can even shut down highly specialized air-gapped equipment that is deeply underground. It's like "if there's a will, there's a way".