Free Nitrokey cryptographic cards for kernel developers
Free Nitrokey cryptographic cards for kernel developers
The Linux Foundation and Nitrokey have announced
a program whereby anybody who appears in the kernel's MAINTAINERS file or
who has a
kernel.org email address can obtain a free Nitrokey Start crypto card. The
intent, of course, is that kernel developers will use these devices to
safeguard their GnuPG keys and, as a result, improve the security of the
kernel development process as a whole. "A digital smartcard token
like Nitrokey Start contains a cryptographic chip that is capable of
storing private keys and performing crypto operations directly on the token
itself. Because the key contents never leave the device, the operating
system of the computer into which the token is plugged in is not able to
retrieve the private keys themselves, therefore significantly limiting the
ways in which the keys can be leaked or stolen.
"
See this LWN article for a look at crypto cards.