Rutkowska: State considered harmful - A proposal for a stateless laptop

Qubes OS creator Joanna Rutkowska has announceda newpaper [PDF] describing a stateless laptop design that, she thinks, willaddress a number of the security problems she sees as being inherent in theIntel architecture. "The Trusted Stick, a small device of a 'USBstick' or an SD card form factor, is an element that the user alwayscarries with themselves and which contains all the 'state' for theplatform. This includes the (encrypted) user files and platformconfiguration. It also is expected to carry all the software and - what isunique as of today - firmware for the platform, and also enforceread-onlyness of these."