Michael Nordquist is the Sr. Director of Strategic Planning and Architecture in the Business Client Group.
Building something great requires a strong foundation – and security is no different. Security is not a one time event, it must constantly evolve to stay ahead of cyber-threats. Microsoft has worked with Intel for many years, leveraging our hardware to solve the toughest security problems through collaborative innovation. An example of this innovation – more than a decade ago - was the successful introduction of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). And today, Microsoft announced Microsoft Pluton with a mission to collaborate with partners like Intel to help guard against physical attacks, prevent the discovery of keys, and provide the ability to update systems more efficiently. Intel plans to partner with Microsoft to build these significant advancements in security into our client CPUs in future platforms. The collaboration initially aims to bring noteworthy evolution to TPM’s – with alignment between the companies to bring the Microsoft Pluton vision to life and advance the state of security.
Intel is committed to providing exceptional security for the industry, and that starts at the core – in our hardware. Intel engineers continue to deliver advancements to help safeguard our customers data from evolving cyber-threats. We have a long history of collaboration with our partners to innovate new, cutting-edge security capabilities and solutions. And, we continue to work tirelessly to ensure the security of our platforms for our customers. Intel reaffirms our unwavering commitment to support the security of the platform throughout the compute lifecycle. This includes vigorous security assurance that improves the design, development, and maintenance of our products, aligned to our security-first mindset. We are proud of our industry-leading security assurance processes and stand behind them, relentlessly.
Secure platforms anchor on a hardware Root of Trust as the foundation. Given Intel’s diverse ecosystem, our vision is to offer multiple Root of Trust options that ensure isolation of resources, keys and security assets. The partnership with Microsoft to offer Pluton will further broaden the choices available to our mutual customers.
Related: Intel® Converged Security and Management Engine (Intel® CSME) Security White Paper
It’s important to incorporate defense-in-depth strategies to any security program. While Root of Trust provides a solid foundation, holistic platform security requires a comprehensive set of hardware capabilities. Intel vPro® platform with Intel® Hardware Shield offers a set of robust, full-stack security capabilities – to lay the foundation for exceptional security across the eco-system and secure our mutual customers.
At Intel, we take great pride in being the choice billions of customers around the world have made and continue to make when purchasing a new PC. Our relentless focus on security innovation and our history of support for deployed products are fundamental reasons why our customers trust Intel platforms. Intel plans to work with Microsoft to bring Pluton to these customers, as a choice, at scale. As the industry leader in silicon for PCs, Intel can truly bring bolstered security to the most customers, across the most segments.
“Microsoft is continuously striving to deliver security innovation. As attackers continue to adapt, it’s our job to outthink them and create new and innovative ways to keep them out. Our ongoing partnership with Intel will ensure our joint Windows customers can benefit from the innovative hardware and Windows operating system integration that the Microsoft Pluton security processor will provide. This is a major step forward to reduce the available attack surface and we’re excited to continue this journey with Intel to provide choice and flexibility for our customers.” – David Weston, Director of Enterprise and OS Security, Microsoft.
Intel has a long partnership with Microsoft and OEMs to deliver security that starts in our hardware. Throughout decades of history, and as we forge into the future – Intel has been and will remain committed to working with the eco-system to secure compute.
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Michael Nordquist is the Vice President Client Computing Group & General Manager, Business Client Product Planning and Architecture. He has overall product planning and architecture responsibility for Intel’s business client platforms, including the Intel® vPro™ brand, across all desktop and mobile platforms. Nordquist has held a variety of sales, marketing, planning, and management roles since joining Intel in 2000. Prior to running product planning for the Business Client Group, he was the director of strategic planning focused on phones, tablets, and our Intel® Atom™ microprocessor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Babson College.