Microsoft Initiates Pre-Installed Framework To Avoid Hacking Attacks

PC security has long been considered nothing more than a cat and mouse game as both hackers and developers continuously find other ways to level up every single piece of code to attack and defense. Hackers now focus on firmware exploits to perform their cyber raids. Firmware is an unreplaceable source to bridge software and hardware, making it more important than most of the other codes going along with the computer. Keep in mind that firmware isn’t often coded by operating system developers as all the works are under hardware manufacturers. Now Microsoft appears to tackle the threats with a helpful solution.

Microsoft has initiated an idea called “Secured-core PC”, which is the result of the partnership between the company and PC manufacturers. The presence of "Secured-core PC" lights up its relationship with firmware and the way it handles booting up devices. Previously, Microsoft offered a tool called Secure Boot to check the authenticity of a bootloader, but it'll not be safe once the firmware gets attacked.

Specifically, the processor’s firmware will still power up the system, but it will define the code path to launch the system while limiting how trust its own firmware. For those instructions, the processor will actually need help from Microsoft’s boot-loader. From that, the system can ensure a path that is not only safe but also reliable for the processor whenever it boots the computer. One of the most dedicated advantages is that the framework will prevent attacks from the ground up.

To widely deploy “Secured-core PC”, Microsoft and major chipmakers (Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, etc.) are partnering to make processors featuring secure encryption needed during their manufacturing process. As from now, you can look forward to having a Windows computer with such an inbuilt security solution.