To promote the high-quality development of the confidential computing industry, build a prosperous ecosystem, and accelerate application implementation, the Confidential Computing Special Interest Group of the Global Computing Consortium (GCC), abbreviated as CC SIG, was officially established on September 19, 2024. Its first plenary meeting was successfully held in Shanghai, with Academician Feng Dengguo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences delivering a video address.

The GCC Confidential Computing Special Interest Group was jointly initiated by more than 30 organizations, including the China Electronics Standardization Institute, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., the Institute of Software of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Telecom Group, Arm Technology (China) Co., Ltd., Phytium Technology Co., Ltd., Nanhu Laboratory, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Minsheng Bank, Douyin Group, National Information Technology Security Research Center, Beijing National Financial Technology Certification Center Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Southern University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, xFusion Digital Technologies Co., Ltd., Sichuan Huakun Zhenyu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., and Hangzhou DBAPP Security Co., Ltd.

The initiating organizations cover the full confidential computing industry chain, including chips, firmware, servers, operating systems, solution providers, industry users, evaluation institutions, research institutes, and other related organizations.

All member representatives attending the meeting reviewed and voted to approve the Plan for the First Plenary Meeting of the Confidential Computing Special Interest Group and the Working Regulations of the Confidential Computing Special Interest Group. The meeting also elected the Chair, Vice Chairs, and members of the first Management Committee.

At the first meeting of the first Management Committee of the Confidential Computing Special Interest Group held afterwards, members of the Expert Committee were confirmed, as well as the Chair and Vice Chair organizations of the Technical Standards Working Group, Evaluation and Certification Working Group, Industry Application Working Group, and Frontier Technology Working Group.

Participating representatives also discussed the definition and technical routes of confidential computing, policy-level opportunities and challenges, market maturity and development potential, standardization needs, the construction of an evaluation and certification system, and other key future work of the Special Interest Group. They also discussed key tasks planned for the second half of this year, including the release of the Confidential Computing White Paper and the launch of standards-based evaluation work.

Confidential computing is a computing model based on trusted hardware that protects data security during use through mechanisms such as isolation, encryption, and attestation. Its core principle is to use trusted hardware to build an isolated, encryptable, and attestable computing environment, protecting the confidentiality and integrity of data during computation, thereby enabling data processing in untrusted computing environments.

Confidential computing technology prevents code and data running inside the computing environment from being viewed or modified by any privileged software, including operating systems and hypervisors, greatly improving the security of data in use. Confidential computing not only provides strong protection for trusted data circulation and value mining, but also injects new vitality into the development of the digital economy.

Vision of the Special Interest Group

To define the evolution path of confidential computing technologies, promote the implementation of confidential computing applications, and support the sustainable development of the confidential computing industry.

Positioning and Goals

Guide industry direction: define the evolution direction of confidential computing technologies, build a confidential computing technology system, strengthen technological innovation and application, build consistent confidential computing standards to guide industry development, promote coordination with existing security technologies, and expand the market space for confidential computing;

Build the industry ecosystem: promote cross-platform interconnection and interoperability across the confidential computing industry chain, improve compatibility and ease of use, and reduce the development cost for users adopting confidential computing;

Promote commercial application: build an authoritative evaluation and certification system, providing trusted evidence for confidential computing technologies to become the preferred data infrastructure foundation in industries such as finance, government affairs, and operators;

Enhance international influence: promote international development, expand the international ecosystem, and lead the development of international standards and technical routes.

Main Members

The main members include CPU vendors, firmware vendors, server vendors, OS vendors, solution providers, internet companies, cloud service providers, industry users, third-party evaluation and certification institutions, academic and research institutions, and others.