Secure data processing method and system

摘要

A secure data processing system comprises a central processor unit (11), memory (12) and a security circuit (15) in the form of an application specific integrated circuit. The security circuit has a cryptographic engine (19) and a cryptographic key store (18).;The cryptographic engine operates on the contents of the cryptographic key store to generate a digital signature. Means are provided to generate a digital signature from a software or hardware component to be checked for authenticity and to compare the digital signature from the component with the generated digital signature. An indication of the authenticity of the component is generated as a result of the comparison. The components of the system that can be checked include the boot firmware (16) for the system, the operating system and plug-in cards (13) for the system.