Free Nitrokey cryptographic cards for kernel developers

The Linux Foundation and Nitrokey have announceda program whereby anybody who appears in the kernel's MAINTAINERS file orwho has a kernel.org email address can obtain a free Nitrokey Start crypto card. Theintent, of course, is that kernel developers will use these devices tosafeguard their GnuPG keys and, as a result, improve the security of thekernel development process as a whole. "A digital smartcard tokenlike Nitrokey Start contains a cryptographic chip that is capable ofstoring private keys and performing crypto operations directly on the tokenitself. Because the key contents never leave the device, the operatingsystem of the computer into which the token is plugged in is not able toretrieve the private keys themselves, therefore significantly limiting theways in which the keys can be leaked or stolen."

See this LWN article for a look at crypto cards.