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’s Kinibi 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, in the mobile and Internet of Things space, confidence that Trustonic’s TEE product meets an industry-defined security baseline. Service providers – across markets including financial services, enterprise, government, 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.
Bringing trust to connected devices and apps
Already embedded in more than one billion devices, the Trustonic TEE offers hardware application security in the form of a secure operating system which is completely isolated from the device operating system through hardware security technologies. 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. Furthermore, the Root of Trust managed at the TEE level 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. “Smartphones are currently the biggest target, but the attack surface is growing as connectivity extends to more household appliances, wearables, cars and even health equipment. This shows 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.”
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, thereby opening up significant 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.
Continued commitment to compliance
Trustonic’s TEE has also been qualified to the latest version of GlobalPlatform’s TEE Initial Configuration v1.1, which describes implementation requirements for features of the GlobalPlatform Device Specification. “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,” concludes George.
* Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
The TEE is a secure area of the main processor in a smart phone (or any connected device) that ensures sensitive data is stored, processed and protected in an isolated, trusted environment without an extra Bill of Material (BOM) cost. The TEE’s ability to offer isolated safe execution of authorised security software, known as ‘trusted applications’, provides end-to-end security by enforcing protection, confidentiality, integrity and data access rights and by providing means for strong user and device authentication. In particular, the TEE offers a level of protection against software attacks running in the Rich OS environment. It houses business-specific sensitive applications, which need to be isolated from the Rich OS.
** GlobalPlatform TEE Protection Profile
GlobalPlatform TEE PP specifies the typical threats the hardware and software of the TEE needs to withstand. It also details the security objectives that are to be met in order to counter these threats and the security functional requirements that a TEE will have to comply with. The essential focus is on vulnerabilities that are subject to scalable and remote exploitation.
