Microsoft announced that its new operating system Windows 11 will require Trusted Platform Module (TPM ) 2.0 chips for existing and new devices which are mainly used as a security step to combat the ever-increasing number of firmware attacks.

TPM works by providing hardware protection instead of software, and it can be used to encrypt hard drives with Windows features such as BitLocker while preventing dictionary attacks on passwords.

According to David Weston, Director of Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, “The Trusted Platform Modules is a chip that is either integrated into your PC’s motherboard or added separately into the CPU. Its purpose is to protect encryption keys, user credentials, and other sensitive data behind a hardware barrier so that malware and attackers can’t access or tamper with that data.”

For more information, read the original story in The Verge