3.3.1 Introduction

Trusted computing platform specifications were first developed by the TCPA, ^[1] which was founded in January 1999. After the release of the initial draft specification in October 1999, the original alliance, which included HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft, invited other companies to become involved. By 2002, over 150 companies had joined and the specifications had become an open industry standard ^[4]. In April 2003, however, it was announced that the TCPA was to be superseded by the TCG ^[2] who adopted the TCPA specifications with the intention of expanding and developing them.

3.3.2 The TCG

The TCG is made up of six fundamental organisational components: the board, the market working group, the best practices group, the advisory council, administration and the technical committee, who oversee the operation of technical working groups. There are currently 13 active working groups, whose primary responsibilities are described as follows by the TCG ^[9].

• The TPM work group is accountable for specifying how the TPM architecture, as described by the technical committee, can be implemented;

• The trusted TCG software stack work group is responsible for the provision of a set of APIs for application vendors wishing to utilise TPM functionality;

• The mobile phone work group is currently adopting the TCG concepts to mobile devices;

• The peripheral work group is examining the trust-related properties of peripherals, where the trustworthiness of a computing platform may be affected by the trustworthiness of peripheral devices connected to the...