A recipe for trust at Papa Gino's

A restaurant chain pioneers the use of the TPM security chip and saves thousands in time and lost data.

Papa Gino's and D'Angelo Sandwich Shops now can add fast, easy, bulletproof security to its traditional menu of quick, casual food.

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Papa Gino's and D'Angelo Sandwich Shops now can add fast, easy, bulletproof security to its traditional menu of quick, casual food.

The restaurant chain based in Dedham, Mass., is pioneering the use of a little-known security chip, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), that comes inside every Dell laptop and desktop the company buys. Not only does the chip generate and store encryption keys, helping to protect the chain's business data, but it also enables easy finger-swipe or password-based authentication, guarding against identity theft for its employees and customers. When used with Wave Systems' Embassy Trust Suite (ETS) software, the chip provides Papa Gino's with a chain of trust, from the laptop or desktop, all the way to the server and data center.

"And it's so easy," says Chris Cahalin, network manager at the chain. He is amazed a solution that is so easy to administer and use is not more well known in IT circles. For advancing deployment of this elegant, comprehensive approach to security, Papa Gino's earns recognition as a 2006 Enterprise All-Star.

Getting to know the TPM

"Our introduction came through Dell," Cahalin says, explaining how after a sales visit from the PC maker in March 2005, he went to its Web site to learn more. "Security is first and foremost in everybody's mind, so naturally I clicked on a link, and it took me on this wonderful journey of Trusted Platform Modules. As I looked at it, the solution just made more and more sense to me. And then to realize that it's already included in the hardware we're buying today, I thought, my God, why aren't we using this?"

Today, the TPM and Wave Systems' ETS form the core of Papa Gino's security strategy, Cahalin says.