International Business Machines Corporation

David Nigel Mackintosh

David Haikney

Jose Juan Palacios Perez

James William Walker

Imran Imtiaz

A technique for attesting a plurality of data processing systems includes generating a logical grouping for a data processing system. The logical grouping is associated with a rule that describes a condition that must be met in order for the data processing system to be considered trusted. A list of one or more children associated with the logical grouping is retrieved. The one or more children are attested to determine whether each of the one or more children is trusted. In response to the attesting, the rule is applied to determine whether the condition has been met in order for the data processing system to be considered trusted. A plurality of logical groupings is associated to determine whether an associated plurality of data processing systems can be considered trusted.

Techniques for attesting data processing systems

A method for attesting use of an interactive component during a boot process, comprising the steps of: reading, in response to determining use of the interactive component, associated interactive input; determining whether the input should be trusted; and in response to determining that the input should be trusted, processing the input to create a trusted cryptographic value, further comprising: matching, in response to a subsequent interactive input being read, the subsequent interactive input with one or more of the trusted cryptographic values in order to determine whether the subsequent interactive input is trusted.

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Manchester, United Kingdom

David Nigel Mackintosh