What is secure-boot and why you should use it.

Speaker: Nathaniel Smith

Room: CC 234

Time: Sat 9:30 am – 10:00 am

Format: Lecture (30 Min + Q&A)

Difficulty: Introductory

Track: Security / Privacy

Additional Tags: Hardware, Education

Presenter Location: In-person

Experience: several-th time speaking

At: lfnw

Description:

Secure-boot is a feature of desktops and laptops that ensures the software running has not been tampered with and is trusted. From what I have seen, Linux users are less likely to think that Secure Boot is an important feature and many disable it entirely. I will teach the math behind Secure Boot, showing how it works so participants can better understand it, demystifying the technology. Next I will teach how Secure Boot improves security on computers that utilize it. Microsoft recently has made people annoyed with their insistence of requiring the TPM chip, a hardware feature that ensures Secure Boot keys have not been tampered with, leading many Linux users to dislike the technology.

Target Audience:

Newer users of Linux