Samsung has caused quite a stir with the Galaxy S8. With the launch approaching, it’s difficult to avoid analysis of every aspect of the device across tech websites, blogs and forums. If we look beyond the regular scrutiny of screen size, camera and battery life however, it becomes clear that the real talking point is the security that Samsung has built into its latest offering.
Smartphones are now the primary device for accessing digital services. Mobile browsing overtook computer-based sessions for the first time in 2016. Mobile Google searches have surpassed those conducted on PCs and sales of desktops and laptops have fallen for eight consecutive quarters. So, with more sensitive apps and services ‘going mobile’, it figures that the need for device security is greater than ever.
Great power brings great responsibility
With the mobile age upon us, consumers are demanding quick, convenient and, importantly, secure access to all of their digital services, from whichever device they are carrying in their back pocket. This is why Samsung puts security front and centre of its most recent devices and has worked with us here at Trustonic to underpin its KNOX platform with our Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology.
“Knox is Samsung's defense-grade security platform built into our latest mobile devices.” - Samsung
KNOX allows Samsung to enhance its own device security and deliver secure services. What’s more, since Trustonic’s TEE is the only open TEE available, it uniquely permits third-party applications to be provisioned after the handset or device has been deployed. This opens up vast commercial opportunities for both device manufacturers and digital service providers, who 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.
Extending trust to apps and services
With Trustonic Application Protection, service providers and app developers can access hardware-level application security on more than one billion devices, including Samsung’s S6, S7 and S8 phones, which all feature a Trustonic TEE. This gives them secure storage, enables secure data entry and ensures that biometric authentication is robust, among a host of other benefits and features.
We realise, though, that app developers and service providers need to protect their content across every device, whether Android or iOS. This is why TAP combines advanced software protection with hardware security. This means service providers can develop with one set of APIs using our SDK and benefit from the best available security on each device. If there is a TEE, the app gets hardware protection; if no TEE is present then it will default to the highest level of software protection.
Simplicity and security do not often go hand in hand. By combining hardware and software protection, service providers can now add a piece of code to their app and confidently deploy across all devices, safe in the knowledge it will get the protection it needs.
Interested to learn more? Check out the below video or read this blog ‘Time for app developers to take control?’
This blog first appeared on the Information Age website
