You see, the whole secure boot approach is a major smokescreen introduced by a rather panic-stricken Microsoft, in the hope that it will at least be able to protect its turf with this initiative. Secure boot means that only an operating system which is recognised by a key in the firmware will be allowed to boot on a given device.
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No agency will give Microsoft grief on this score. The US government has long passed the point when it would pull the company into line; that point was passed after the anti-trust trial of the late 1990s. Had a Democrat administration been returned to office in 2000, the company would probably have been broken up into operating systems and applications divisions and that would have put it in its place. But we had the emergence of Dubya instead and Microsoft polished its lobbying skills, hired a few more smooth talkers to haunt Capitol Hill, and has never looked back.
Since then, Microsoft, under the wise (?) guidance of Steve Ballmer, has tried to enter various markets and failed. Abysmally. Music, Search, Mobiles, Tablets - the buzz-word in any of these silos is not Microsoft. It's not even second or third. The only market it can cling to is the desktop, an area in transition. And looking over its shoulder it can see Google approaching in the distance with its Linux-based Chrome OS.
Understandably, Microsoft wants some way of locking down this area. Hence the introduction of secure boot. The message echoes around - Microsoft is finally taking security seriously. Tell that to someone like security guru Bruce Schneier and he will laugh cynically. You could have a one-hour laughter session if you had a few others like Marc Maiffret and Dave Aitel present as well.
