Garrett: Producing a trustworthy x86-based Linux appliance

Posted Jun 3, 2021 4:40 UTC (Thu) by alison (subscriber, #63752)
In reply to: Garrett: Producing a trustworthy x86-based Linux appliance by nim-nim
Parent article: Garrett: Producing a trustworthy x86-based Linux appliance

> no one but very dedicated tivoizing evil corporations will invest in deploying and maintaining all the parts this sand castle requires to work.

Assuredly companies that make SCADA systems for utilities or robotic medical devices that must be networked should be extremely motivated about traceability of the boot chain? Perhaps their insurers will require them to behave this way? Companies in Taiwan and South Korea have excellent reasons to build in the strongest Chain of Trust that money can buy for reasons that scarcely need explanation.

Tivoization is real: no one should deny it. Nonetheless I'd prefer that my electricity provider and any robotic surgical device that cuts into me to have the strongest possible security.

Garrett: Producing a trustworthy x86-based Linux appliance

Posted Jun 3, 2021 7:24 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]

The companies making the systems, yes, their customers not at all.

When you have the scale to deploy a SCADA or a medical system the last thing you want is something that would allow your providers to lock you into a particular setup, driving costs sky-high. Also you plan for decades, not for the next Christmas sale.

That’s the same reason Apple, Samsung, etc could adapt to component shortages (very narrow product offering range, with short shelf life) but automakers could not (very broad product offering range, with long shelf life).