Security certification supports and accelerates deployment of secure services on connected devices

Trustonic has become the first vendor globally to achieve Common Criteria security certification for a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)* device security product. The certification of Trustonic’sKinibi TEE paves the way for mass market delivery of trusted services on connected devices.

Common Criteria certification, which has been performed in line with the GlobalPlatform TEE Protection Profile**, gives device manufacturers confidence that Trustonic’s TEE product meets an industry-defined security baseline. Service providers – across markets including financial services, enterprise, government, internet of things (IoT) and premium content creation – can also be confident that their trusted applications are protected from attacks.

Trustonic’s product has also achieved compliance to GlobalPlatform’s latest functional specifications which incorporates the latest feedback from live implementations.

Bringing trust to connected devices and apps

Already embedded in more than one billion devices, the Trustonic TEE offers hardware protection in the form of a secure operating system which is completely isolated from the device operating system. This makes it, and trusted applications residing in it, immune to all software threats resident on the device and enables advanced device security, such as biometric authentication and secure PIN entry. The Root of Trust also ensures that a trusted identity is preserved within the device, preventing fraudulent use or copying.

“Life is increasingly digital,” comments George Kanuck, SVP of Global Sales & Marketing at Trustonic. “With more connected devices and sensitive digital services than ever before, the attack surface for hackers is growing. Smartphones are currently the biggest target, but as connectivity extends to more household appliances, wearables, cars and even hospital equipment the threat grows. This is why security must not be an afterthought. Manufacturers need to ensure the integrity of their devices and service providers want assurances that their apps and data are protected. This is where the TEE comes into its own.”

Continued commitment to compliance

Trustonic’sKinibi TEE has also been qualified to the latest version of GlobalPlatform’s TEE Initial Configuration v1.1. The document describes implementation requirements for features of the GlobalPlatform Device Specification. The scope has been extended to support both Android and Linux environments, and new deployment use cases like IoT.

Maturity for the mass market

“These accomplishments demonstrate the maturity of the Trustonic TEE and our commitment to making this flexible device security technology available to the mass market. It is never easy to be the first to go through an approval process but certification brings assurances that our technology can be trusted by device manufacturers, service providers and consumers,” adds George.

Trustonic’s TEE is the only open TEE available. Uniquely, it permits third-party applications to be provisioned after the handset or device has been deployed, which opens up vast commercial opportunities for both device manufacturers and digital service providers. The latter will have the potential to dynamically add value to the end user by offering new secure services and functionality, once the device is already in their hands.

Separately, Kinibi has already been successfully certified to execute some host card emulation (HCE) payment solutions from various international payment schemes. To find out more about the Trustonic TEE, visit the website and blog.