Device and application security specialist Trustonic today announces that its technology is now being integrated by the world’s fourth largest smartphone manufacturer, OPPO. Headquartered in China and with a significant international presence in over 20 countries, OPPO will use the Trustonic Device Security Platform to enhance the security and privacy of its devices, unlock security enhanced experiences on services such as Alipay and WeChat Pay and support Google’s increasingly demanding mandate for hardware security in devices to underpin Android versions M and above. TSP now secures 9 of the top 10 Android device makers’ smartphones and tablets.
Already embedded in more than 2 billion devices, TSP, which includes the Trustonic Trusted Execution Environment (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, highly protected from software threats resident on the device and enables advanced device security, such as biometric authentication and secure PIN entry. A hardware-based Root of Trust is also embedded into the devices and ensures that a trusted identity is preserved within the device, preventing fraudulent use or cloning.
As highlighted by the IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, “OPPO’s midrange, camera-focused R9s was a crucial model in China that helped it to see strong shipments in the market. OPPO’s growth has in fact been stronger outside of China with nearly a quarter of shipments from international markets. In the rest of Asia and to a smaller degree in the Middle East and Africa regions, its strong retail presence has helped it to grow further in its business.”
Dr Li, Head of Security at OPPO added: “OPPO is focused on delivering the best user experience possible and has spent the last decade making mobile technology breakthroughs – particularly in the field of photography. As consumers become more security conscious, we want to continue to provide an excellent smartphone experience while protecting our users’ privacy by ensuring that their devices are secure”.
“After intensive research, it was clear that Trustonic’s TEE is the most effective technology to achieve this, as it protects sensitive applications from hacking and malware and allows us to offer secure biometric authentication, like facial recognition, to consumers,” Dr Li continues. “Trustonic’s open TEE technology allows trusted applications to be loaded onto devices throughout their entire lifecycle. So, service providers can now access this security technology on our devices, enabling them to deploy hardware-backed apps after the device is in the hands of consumers. This is unique in the market and really stood out for us.”
Ben Cade, CEO and founder, Trustonic, adds: “Local demand for the TEE by WeChat Pay and Alipay, as well as Google’s mandate, are driving awareness and adoption, but it is the value that hardware protection brings to the fight against hacking and malware that is pushing the market forward. One of the key reasons for our success is the openness of our platform. Most device makers do not just want to secure their own IP and data; they want to extend the benefits of the TEE to the apps and services that their customers value and open TEEs enable this collaborative approach. The Trustonic TEE has reached critical mass in devices globally and now we are seeing major service providers adopting this technology to enrich, simplify and enhance the experiences they deliver to users, while simultaneously better protecting their own and their customers’ data. Our local team in China are providing on-demand technical and security expertise to OPPO to ensure that these deployments run smoothly. It’s exciting to be able to bring even greater trust and secure functionality to OPPO devices, while enhancing the end-user’s experience.”
Last year, Trustonic became the first vendor globally to achieve Common Criteria security certification for a TEE device security product, paving the way for mass market delivery of trusted services on connected devices, and reached the milestone of having its hardware security deployed in over 2 billion devices. To find out more about the Trustonic TEE, visit the website and blog.
