Stathakopoulos said
there are enough similarities between Microsoft's 2002 problems and the
existing security nightmares haunting the Web.
"We don't want this to be interpreted as a Microsoft play," he said.
“We're saying that these are the concepts that we generally support and
we've put them together in this white paper and we're asking the
industry to talk about it. We'd like to see everyone put the same
energy into it that we put into the Trustworthy Computing initiative.
"The problem might be a little different but we think we can find
ways to fix things. It's about how you exist online, what's your
identity claim, how do you interact with the Internet. These are things
we need to be talking about in a very serious way."
In the white paper, Microsoft spells out its own vision of how End
to End Trust can be achieved through a "trusted stack" that features
security rooted in the hardware, a trusted operating system, trusted
applications, trusted people and trusted data.
"The entire stack must be trustworthy because these layers can be
interdependent, and a failure in any can undermine the security
provided by the other layers; for example, a document may be created by
an identified individual, using secure hardware and a secure operating
system, and sent to another as a signed attachment with integrity, but
if it was created with an insecure application, it may not be
trustworthy," according to the white paper.
"When trust is misplaced, it must be possible to identify the
improvidently relied-upon party and have the right social and political
mechanisms in place so that proactive and reactive steps can be taken.
An appropriate audit capability can provide the evidence needed to
inform response and drive an accountability framework."
The white paper also focuses heavily on establishing trusted
identities on the Internet without abolishing the concept of anonymity.
Microsoft also makes it clear that the proposal is not meant to
create unique, national identifiers or support the creation of
mega-databases that collect personal information.
Architecture 
