Support for secure objects in a computer system

A method of protecting private information on a computer system, said method comprising executing a mechanism supporting a Secure Object comprising information that is cryptographically protected so that other software on the computer system cannot access or undetectably tamper with the information, thereby protecting both a confidentiality and an integrity of the Secure Object information from other software while making an unencrypted form of the Secure Object information available to the Secure Object itself during execution of the Secure Object, wherein said mechanism:

• decrypts and integrity-checks Secure Object information as the Secure Object information moves into the computer system from external storage;
• and
• encrypts and updates an integrity value for Secure Object information as the Secure Object information moves out of the computer system to the external storage.

A data structure tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, said data structure comprising a Secure Object comprising information for a computer system that is cryptographically protected so that other software on the computer system will not be able to access or undetectably tamper with the information, thereby protecting both a confidentiality and an integrity of the Secure Object information from other software while making an unencrypted form of the Secure Object information available to the Secure Object itself during execution of the Secure Object, such that Secure Object information is decrypted and integrity-checked as the Secure Object information moves into a computer system from external storage and is encrypted and an integrity value is generated as Secure Object information moves out of the computer system to external storage.