They want to keep data safe even while you’re using it.
It’s common to secure data when its sitting put or flying to its destination, but not so much when you’re actually using it — there’s still a risk someone could peek at your content while you work. Industry heavyweights might help keep your info secure at every step, though. Google, Intel, Microsoft and seven other companies have formed the Confidential Computing Consortium to help in “defining and accelerating” open source tech that delivers truly private data access. Ideally, data will always be encrypted or otherwise limited to whoever is meant to be looking.
Some of the early contributions include a Microsoft framework that helps you write code to run inside Trusted Execution Environments, an Intel framework for protecting code at the hardware level and a Red Hat tool that abstracts secure environments to the point where you can create and run private “serverless” apps.
Appropriately, the Linux Foundation will host the Consortium.
There’s a lot of work to be done before the CCC bears fruit. It’s easy to make a public commitment to the notion of confidential computing, but it’s another matter to follow through. It’s the first time an open source project like this has gotten underway, though, and it could lead to a day when you can assume your data is reasonably secure at every stage — even if some governments are likely to complain.
