Longhorn locked down to fight hackers
Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system places great emphasis on locking down PCs to prevent unauthorised access to hardware and software, the software giant revealed today.
According to Detlef Echert, Microsoft's chief security advisor in Europe, there are several key elements designed to boost security in its next OS.
Hardware locking via a dedicated chip is combined with "hardening" of the OS to restrict how memory can be accessed.
Security will also be boosted using a technique dubbed User Account Protection, which aims to ensure that computers can be locked so that local users are not given full administrator access by default.
The first stage of enhancing security in Longhorn centres on the use of Microsoft's Trusted Platform Module 1.2, a chip already being manufactured by Intel and AMD.
