[governance] Verisign to control what operating systems you can run on your computer

[Kerry Brown]

The "feature" is called SecureBoot. SecureBoot is part of the UEFI standards. Any OS can take advantage of it or not. It is up to the manufacturer how they implement it. Both Dell and HP have said they will have a BIOS setting to turn it on/off. AMI has indicated they will recommend this to OEMs using the AMI BIOS. PC's shipped with Windows 8 will default to on. If you want to install Linux you will have to turn it off. The reason for it existing is to prevent root kits. It appears that with Windows 8 tablets you may not be able to disable this. That is unfortunate but it is the norm for tablets where you usually have to install new firmware to install a different OS.

I don't know what the fuss is. There is a lot of FUD about this.

http://www.uefi.org/learning_center/UPFS11_P2_SecureBoot_Insyde.pdf

Kerry Brown

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Jeremy Malcolm
Sent: June-06-12 11:32 PM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: [governance] Verisign to control what operating systems you can run on your computer

There's been much disquiet on this list about the power that Verisign has to delete domains from the Internet at the whim of US authorities.

Potentially even more frightening, they will soon be able to decide what operating system you may run on your computer.  PCs that are certified for use with Windows 8 will, by default, refuse to run any operating system that is not digitally signed by a Verisign-issued certificate.  Even worse, the only certificates that hardware and device manufacturers will recognise by default are Microsoft's.

This leads to the absurd situation that even commercial vendors of Linux, such as Red Hat, will be paying Verisign to attach a digital signature from Microsoft's key-signing root to their versions of Linux - otherwise they simply won't run at all.

If that wasn't outrageous enough, consider the geopolitical implications of this.  By virtue of US sanctions, Verisign will not permit anyone from Cuba, Iran, Syria etc. to develop an operating system (or even to distribute a version of Linux that they compile from source) for users of Windows 8 certified computers.

Why should it stop there?  A US court order might be obtained against Verisign to prevent it from certifying China's Red Flag Linux, or Russia's ALT Linux.  Billions of consumers could be forced into using older or second-rate computers, or buying Microsoft's operating system, because home-grown operating systems won't run.

Will the IGC take a stand against this?
--

Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International
Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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