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Or just use the TPM included with your Intel CPU firmware. Lose the dongle once you plug it in and your computer and drives are now toast. You won't be able to boot up and the drives will be encrypted. The same thing with the CPU if you use the firmware version, but losing the CPU is a lot less likely.
Last edited by John Pombrio; 24 Jun 2021 at 16:22.
Yeah... that's a 14-1 pin, not a 20-1 pin.
This is a 20-1 pin module.
Asus TPM-L R2 Trusted Platform Module Connector TPM Connector - Newegg.com
I ordered one of those cheap TPM modules through Amazon. Can't wait to see if it works. The Intel firmware TPM is apparently controlled by the Management Engine (ME). The BIOS warning about losing data scared me off, though. I'll try to learn a bit more before trying it. Thinking the hardware version may be safer than the firmware version.
My motherboard needs a 20 pin TPM device. I had ordered the 14 pin TPM device, but Newegg was nice enough to cancel the order. They do sell a 20 pin TPM device, but it is from Supermicro and I have not decided if I want to try that one.
Ak
I already took the leap and the result was very anti-climatic and I noticed no changes in the system.
BE AWARE that the discrete chip will do the EXACT SAME THING to your computer as Intel's firmware-based Trusted Platform Module except that you are now locked into that little board instead of the CPU itself. Lose the dongle and your system will not boot and your drives will be encrypted. I would rather trust the CPU to handle that as the computer does not run well without the CPU.
More Info:
How do you deal with a hacker (or a virus) that has gained access to the lowest levels of a computer’s memory? If malicious elements can interfere with even the most fundamental code of the firmware and the operating system, there is little that can be done from the software side.
That is where a Trusted Platform Module comes in. TPM is a microprocessor chip with a digital signature baked in at manufacturing. It is tamper-proof, and cryptographically secure, which means that hackers are going to have a hard time breaking into it. Every time the system boots, it verifies the integrity of the rest of your hardware as well as the fundamental parts of the system code and prevents the system from booting if it is found to be compromised.
It does so by the use of a unique cryptographic key etched into the hardware itself, which is used to encrypt (and decrypt) the contents of your hard drive down to the low-level operating system code. This cryptographic encryption is impossible to crack without the original key, which makes it impossible for any hacker to make changes to the system code without user permission.
Intel Platform Trust Technology parcels the features of a TPM into the core Intel chip itself, removing the need for any additional hardware.
Last edited by John Pombrio; 24 Jun 2021 at 16:01.
Damn 64GB min storage? That's almost 2-3x more than before.