Patent ID: 8074287

Claim:
A method for providing a protected computing environment comprising: separating out a protected environment management component of a kernel from one or more other components of the kernel, wherein the protected environment management component of the kernel includes an obfuscated and encrypted version of a secure flag indicating whether the kernel is considered secure for the protected computing environment, and wherein the protected environment management component is configured to respond to one or more requests regarding a state of the secure flag; providing identification information as a part of the protected environment management component; and providing individualization information for an associated computing device as part of the protected environment management component, wherein the individualization information comprises an XML object configured to gather and present device identification information, device capability information, and key information, and wherein the XML object serves to bind the protected environment to the associated computing device to render the protected environment management component useless on a computing device other than the associated computing device, and wherein providing the individualization information comprises utilizing a template common to a plurality of computing devices to generate the individualization information for the associated computing device.