In Today’s Issue:
- Executive Director August Recap
- Agenda Released! CC Mini Summit @ OSSEU
- Post-Quantum Cryptography
- Web3 Use Case
- Community Blog Highlights
Welcome to the August edition of our newsletter – your guide to awesome happenings in our CCC community. Let’s go!
Executive Director August recap
While it’s holiday season in much of the Northern Hemisphere, the CCC’s work continues (uninterrupted even by the Olympics and Paralympics!), and as we’ve grown over the past few years, we’ve made the decision to continue Governing Board meetings throughout the year, instead of breaking for the (Northern) summer period. The Governing Board manages the strategic and policy directions of the CCC, including budgetary decisions and the acceptance of new open-source projects into the Consortium. Attendance is open to officers of the Consortium, Premier Member representatives, and the elected Governing Board representatives of the General Members. Representatives from other committees typically attend and present the status of work in their respective areas and sometimes the Governing Board requests reports from other groups.
While keeping within the governance structure of the Consortium, we try to maintain a “minimal viable governance” approach. Post-Covid (and changing travel budget constraints for many organizations), opportunities to meet in person have been reduced, so we are considering a face-to-face meeting (supplemented by video conferencing) at the Linux Foundation Member Summit in November: please let us know if you’re going to be there (even if you’re not a Premier member!).
One of the areas that the Governing Board has been keen to promote work on this year has been lowering barriers to the adoption of Confidential Computing. One of these is the availability of Attestation Verification Services, which allow consumers of Confidential Computing services to gain the cryptographic assurances about the workloads they need. Attestation is a core part of Confidential Computing, and the word “attested” was deliberately added to the CCC’s definition of Confidential Computing to reflect that:
“Confidential Computing is the protection of data in use by performing computation in a hardware-based, attested Trusted Execution Environment.”
The CCC has recently kicked off a piece of work to encourage discussion of business models around Attestation Verification Services and to help those considering providing or consuming them. An initial discussion document has generated a great deal of input and the plan is to start a working group with online meetings later in August. If you are interested in participating, please get in touch.
CC Mini Summit Agenda Announced!
Bringing EU Community Together
CCC is hosting the “Confidential Computing Mini Summit” at the Open Source Summit EU, Vienna Austria
- 📢 Mini Summit Agenda
- ⏰ Time: 13:30 – 17:00
- 📍 Room 0.14 (level 0) – see floor plan here
- 🎫 Mini Summit Registration Fee: $10
- 💰 20% Discount Code for Main Summit: OSSEUCOLOSPK20
(*Note: Registration for the main conference is required to attend the Mini Summit.) - Register Here
Post-Quantum Cryptography
Over the last few weeks at TAC meetings, we’ve been discussing the new evolution of cryptography called Post-Quantum Cryptography or PQC. As full-scale quantum computers become more and more likely, cryptographers have had to invent new algorithms that will remain secure against adversaries with new capabilities. In Confidential Computing, we rely on cryptography in a number of ways to protect workloads in use. As a trusted execution environment (TEE) starts we use cryptographic hash algorithms to fingerprint each component.
Later we use cryptographic signatures when the hardware attests to those measurements. While the workload is running the memory is protected with encryption and in some cases integrity provisions. Some of these algorithms are more impacted by quantum computing than others. Hardware vendors will need to update their algorithms. Software vendors may want to shield downstream adopters by carefully designing their APIs. If you are interested to learn more keep your eyes open for an upcoming blog on our Post Quantum Cryptography discussions or watch our Tech Talk.
Bringing EU Community Together
CCC is hosting the “Confidential Computing Mini Summit” at the Open Source Summit EU, Vienna Austria
- 📢 Mini Summit Agenda
- ⏰ Time: 13:30 – 17:00
- 📍 Room 0.14 (level 0) – see floor plan here
- 🎫 Mini Summit Registration Fee: $10
- 💰 20% Discount Code for Main Summit: OSSEUCOLOSPK20
(*Note: Registration for the main conference is required to attend the Mini Summit.) - Register Here
Web3 Use Case
Enabling Verifiable, User-Owned and Tradable AI Agents in Games – with Veriplay, Polygon, Immutable and Super Protocol
True Web3 Games, with their potential for rich gaming experiences, advanced AI agents, and genuine digital asset ownership, can only reach their full potential through the implementation of Confidential Computing in a truly decentralized manner. The Confidential Computing Consortium, alongside its member Super Protocol, is at the forefront of this revolution, demonstrating how these technologies can unlock new business opportunities.
Community Blog Highlights
- Attestation Libraries for Confidential Computing: Veraison and SPDM Tools
- End-User Devices for Confidential Computing: Exploring Islet
- Understanding Trusted Firmware in Confidential Computing: Coconut SVSM and VirTEE
- Catch the Exclusive Interview with Mike Bursell at the Confidential Computing Summit 2024
