This was posted 4 years 8 months 12 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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ASUS TPM-M R2.0 Trusted Platform Module $5 + Delivery (Free C&C in NSW) @ JW Computers

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ASUS TPM-M R2.0 Trusted Platform Module $5 + Delivery (Free C&C in NSW) @ JW Computers
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jace88 on 24/08/2019 - 23:29 jw.com.au (429 clicks)

I just finished building my first desktop PC and wanted to enable Bitlocker but realised I needed a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to be plugged into my motherboard otherwise Windows wouldn't be happy (it's still possible without it but requires a registry override which indicates Microsoft's default position is not something to be taken too lightly). Regardless of the debate over whether to use AMD fTPM (the inbuilt firmware TPM) or whether encryption is even necessary on a desktop PC, I still wanted to encrypt my drives with Bitlocker in Windows 10 Pro.

Cheapest TPM I could find was this one at JW for $5. These seem to be universal to fit into the 14 pin hole on many motherboards. Looking online, they start at circa $20 and are mostly located overseas from what I could tell.

Delivery isn't cheap for something so small ($11 for me in Sydney) but there's free pick up in store. To avoid the credit card charges, you can even use Zip Pay which doesn't appear to charge any fees as long as you meet the repayment schedule.

Computing ASUS Bitlocker TPM

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closed Comments

  • lzwdavid on 25/08/2019 - 00:19
    +4

    According to bloomberg all chips not from USA cannot be “trusted” even apple and amazon say so……..bad joke waiting for negative….

    • alvian on 25/08/2019 - 00:51
      +2

      So this is a PM and not a TPM? Can you link to this Bloomberg article please?

      • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 01:19
        +1

        A controversial article from about a year or so ago which basically said that modifications were being made to chips at the assembly line to facilitate spying. Naturally companies targeted denied it. Who knows.

        https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-h…

        • alvian on 25/08/2019 - 02:01

          The article said nothing about the TPM being compromised. Specifically it reported the discovery of an extraneous microchip that looked like a "signal conditioning coupler" that is placed on some of Supermicro's server boards to interfere with the "baseboard management controller". A newer version of the spy chip was found sandwiched between layers of PCB. It is suspected that the spy chips allow for remote code injection via the out-of-band management channel. The article reported nothing about the security of US vs non-US TPMs.

          So this isn't the article lzwdavid was referring to.

          • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 03:19
            +4

            @alvian: I believe you are taking lzwdavid’s comment very literally and I’m pretty sure they were made tongue in cheek ie not actually specific to TPMs.

            … but I could be mistaken.

        • allenhori on 25/08/2019 - 09:04

          bloomberg is talking bs. Any top secret facility/computer system will have at least sit behind a dozen firewalls before it can reach the outside world. Many of them aren’t physically connected to the internet at all. How on earth could a tiny chip pass through those blocks?

          Plus Bloomberg lied about it according many companies:
          https://www.businessinsider.com/super-micro-issues-strongest…

          https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/bloomberg-china-chi…

          https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/09/bloomberg/amp/

          • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2019 - 09:17

            @allenhori: Bloomberg is pretty much talking bullshit. It quite difficult to bypass physical firewall if set up correctly. The only point of failure is mostly human error in configurations of firewall rules or user installing malware onto a secure network.

            • garage sale on 25/08/2019 - 11:45

              @[Deactivated]: Yep Bloomberg BS ….. journalists not electronic engineers needing to submit something for their weekly quota so they get paid for articles

              Non of these claims every came from a reputable engineering journal ….

              If it was true Lenovo, dell, HPE would have bought some of these servers, done a proper tear down to put their competitors out of business ….never happened.

    • Tacooo on 25/08/2019 - 01:22
      +5

      With the current state of the world I wouldn't trust any TPM chip from the US either.

      • Black Hole on 25/08/2019 - 05:41
        +2

        Yeah, I have just ask Angela Merkel.

    • netsurfer on 25/08/2019 - 09:45
      +2

      Sure, hardware backdoors are bad, but nowadays, with smartphones, Internet, you/we are being spied on all the time.

      • Do you use GMail, Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo Mail or Apple's iCloud? You really think you get completely free service? Your e-mails get scanned, even attachments can be OCR'ed.
      • Your Internet providers pretty much know all sites and IP addresses you visited. VPN could help.
      • Facebook used to store millions of account passwords in plaintext. Also, the previous loophole where if your friend installed a certain facebook app, your information can be accessed without your consent by the app provider.

      We, bargain hunters, tend to enroll in more "free" gift competitions. Most of us are ordinary people, I really doubt people would be bothered spying on us. They are more interested selling us products/services. But, if you are scared of other people/agencies getting hold of your candid photos (i.e. d*ck pics), then don't send them to your love ones through Internet or mobile.

      • diamondd on 25/08/2019 - 10:06

        "Most of us are ordinary people, I really doubt people would be bothered spying on us. They are more interested selling us products/services."

        don't be so sure, you are absolutely being profiled and there's no telling how all that information could be leveraged against you (or your family) in 5, 10, 20 years time.

        don't count on having that long either, only 2 in the House of Reps opposed the Assistance and Access Bill. Once these things are written in they're never taken back. It'll be sold under a different name, but you better believe that China's social credit scheme will arrive globally if we continue the way we are.

        • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2019 - 12:02

          There is many countries that are interested and watching the China social credit scheme.

          Email is no way a secure method of the information. It essentially is a postcode. Unless you use OPENPGP.

          In most case, google knows more about you than facebook.

          Most government already have enough information to put a system in effect. People might not care due to lack of knowledge, once these huge databases get eventually leak. Stolen identity is pain in the ass to fix.

          I feel like the "dck pic/nudes' receiver is more likely to share to other people or the internet than government agencies viewing the pics. They will for sure store it for a employee to search for it later but usually at this point it already leak on internet.

          The Assistance and access bill has already been abused.

    • twocsies on 25/08/2019 - 10:52

      If it's from the USA, the NSA has definitely got something in that chip.

  • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2019 - 09:11

    Bitlocker will work without TPM, you just have change some setting in policy manager. You can use passphase/password.

    You should consider veracrypt for non book drive. It far more secure than close sourced bitlocker and works on no pro version of Windows.

    Using TPM is useless if person stole your whole Pc as they still can boot into Windows. Once booted it is relative easy to bypass login screen.

    If you really care about your data, use Linux with actual proven encryption(luks) method and strong passphase.

    • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 19:38

      I couldn't get my PC to POST at all with the TPM installed :( :(

      I ended up just enabling AMD fTPM instead.

  • garage sale on 25/08/2019 - 11:49
    +1

    Bitlocker for home or office is really just if your PC is lost or stolen so they dont get you data …. they just reimage and sell your PC on Gumtree.

    Otherwise you just attach the drive you found to another machine with a valid C: drive, boot and read the found drive as the D:\

    • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 12:31

      That’s exactly my intention. I know bitlocker has limitations as does SED but it mitigates the most likely risk event of someone stealing my PC or drive and just encouraging them to format and move on rather than perusing my files.

      • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2019 - 12:47

        They still can boot into windows (WITH TPM). A tech savy person will able to read any drives and login once booted.

        You're much better off with password/passphrase method instead of TPM.

        • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 13:21

          Tech savvy yes but I think I’m unlikely to be specifically targeted for my data but rather if I was to lose my PC, I suspect the thieves would just want to resell the parts. I just don’t want to make it too easy for them to suddenly see my documents (which could potentially facilitate impersonation) and instead just incentivise them to format, sell and move on.

    • AlexF on 25/08/2019 - 14:40

      Otherwise you just attach the drive you found to another machine with a valid C: drive, boot and read the found drive as the D:\

      That's why need both, BIOS/UEFI entry and disk passwords (both set in BIOS/UEFI). SATA had do-or-die passwords since.. forever. (Samsung SSDs are SEDs, ie. self-encrypting, so BitLocker, by default, doesn't software-encrypt.)

      • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2019 - 17:03

        Software encrypt is still safer. If you're not affect listed it should be fine.

        https://www.tomshardware.com/news/crucial-samsung-ssd-encryp…

        • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 19:31

          I thought MS updated the default Bitlocker settings to now be software encrypt… haven't heard any news on the SSD vendors fixing it!

        • AlexF on 25/08/2019 - 21:54

          Software encrypt is still safer.

          without a disk password, can’t get access to data, encrypted or not.

  • Black Hole on 25/08/2019 - 12:01
    -1

    Don't bother with this type of device and encryption. It is a money spinning activity. They serve 2 main purposes. It keep the company bank account fatter and also give you a false impression that you are safe (the authority is pushing for this idea). There are so many backdoors being created especially by the US government who is at the for front of IT.

    • AlexF on 25/08/2019 - 14:53
      +1

      Straw! Who on this forum is worried about government decrypting their disk?

      • jace88 on 25/08/2019 - 19:37

        I'm not worried about the Australian government. I'm more worried about thieves.

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