Deep inside millions of computer is a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets. Including classified government reports and confidential business plans. A former U.S. Army computer-security specialist has devised a way to break those locks.
Christopher Tarnovsky discovered the bug on the chip. Although it is difficult to pull off, partly because it requires physical access to a computer. But laptops and smart phones get lost and stolen all the time...
Tarnovsky figured out to break chips that carry a "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM). Such chips are billed as the industry's most secure. According to the market research firm IDC the chips are estimated to be in 100 million personal computers and servers.
