Trusted computing theory and technology in innovation-driven development

Trusted computing is based on a hardware security mechanism establishing a trusted computing environment and comprehensively enhances the system and network trust from the architectural perspective. With the development of information technology and continuous emergence of new application scenarios, security threats in the cyberspace are becoming increasingly serious; hence, trusted computing is actively researched in both academia and industry to find solutions against such treats. This paper summarizes the development process of trusted computing theory from the perspective of innovation and development. The study centers around one of the authors research results in trusted computing over the past 20 years. It proposes a trusted computing technology architecture that covers two method foundations, three trust cores, and four key technologies. Furthermore, the paper summarizes important research problems in mobile trusted computing, quantum-resistant trusted computing, trusted Internet of Things (IoT), trusted cloud, and trusted blockchain, elaborating on the integration and development of trusted computing in these fields. In mobile trusted computing, the design and implementation of a trusted execution environment architecture with software/hardware co-design is the focus of research. Another two important research issues in mobile trusted computing are the runtime security isolation and protection of the mobile operating systems kernel and trusted execution environment-based mobile application security protection. Due to the characteristics of embedded environments and limitation of resources, the construction of lightweight trusted roots, efficient and secure software attestation, practical secure code update mechanism, and swarm device attestation are important issues for further research in trusted IoT. In new scenarios such as quantum-resistant trusted computing, trusted cloud, and trusted blockchain, trusted computing is also constantly expanding its application boundaries and playing an increasingly important role. Finally, this paper looks ahead and discusses the development trends in trusted computing.