Open industry standards organization Trusted Computing Group announced it has created a new membership option, the Associate, targeted to enterprise users, service providers, and to integrators and resellers.

The new membership category lets users with a stake in security issues participate in the organization’s newest class of work groups, which are focused on developing solutions through the definition of frameworks and enabling techniques using the foundational work for the TCG’s specifications and standards.

The Associate members can participate in established solutions work groups or develop new ones for any of the organization’s areas of focus, including, but not limited to, mobile device security, embedded systems, multi-tenant infrastructure, cloud security and client computing.

The traditional work groups incorporate existing TCG standards and specifications, including the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), Trusted Network Connect (TNC) for network security and self-encrypting drives (SED), to provide a holistic, standards-based approach to today’s security problems. Associate members will have the opportunity to provide input and guidance on specifications and design guides prior to publication, helping to influence the underlying requirements for future security technologies and products.

Associate members also can participate in TCG’s certification programs, currently available for the TPM and TNC products, and attend various interoperability events hosted by the group.

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) provides open standards that enable a safer computing environment across platforms and geographies. Benefits of Trusted Computing include protection of business-critical data and systems, secure authentication and strong protection of user identities, and the establishment of strong machine identity and network integrity.

Organizations using built-in, widely available trusted hardware and applications reduce their total cost of ownership. TCG technologies also provide regulatory compliance that is based upon trustworthy hardware.