Is Software-Based Cybersecurity Enough These Days?

 By Hector Cisneros

Image courtesy Pixabay

Not according to Microsoft, it isn’t.  On June 24, Microsoft announced that a Windows 11 requirement is that all new devices running the operating system be equipped with a Trusted Platform Module chip.  The TPM chip is either part of the motherboard or added to the CPU separately.  It functions as a kind of impenetrable wall designed to protect sensitive data like encryption keys, user credentials and other key identifiers at the hardware level.  After warning users for months of the high incidence of firmware attacks that hackers have been using to gain access to business users devices, it was apparent to Microsoft that software solutions alone were no longer an effective protection.