ARM adds a security architecture

CHIP DESIGNER ARM has announced a partnership with German security firm Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) to create a secure environment for mobile phones and similar devices.

The combination uses ARM's Trustzone security architecture and G&D's Mobicore operating system to encrypt any sensitive data at the processor level, helping to ensure that sensitive data can't be inadvertently manipulated during a transaction.

"ARM Trustzone technology is already an integral part of the ARM Cortex-A series processors which are currently being deployed in smartphones by many of the industry's leading handset manufacturers," said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM.

"This collaboration with G&D will enable us to make rapid progress towards enabling secure transactions in next-generation mobile devices."

According to ARM this dramatically open up the possibility for various services beyond the limited handful currently offered by the National Finance Center to include secure mobile banking, online shopping, ticketing, loyalty schemes, content delivery or anything that identifies the user with a particular service without having to worry that someone will be able to access their personal details.

Robert Brown, security technology manager at ARM, explained to the Inquirer that the system works by running Mobicore as a second secure virtualised operating system that runs in parallel to the devices primary operating system. This virtualised instance has a slimmed down view of the hardware, providing only secure communication channels to the processor and the SIM, thereby helping to ensure that data will not be intercepted or adjusted.

This in turn provides a standardised, but secure environment for transaction processors of all types to operate while users can use these devices secure in the knowledge that their personal data is being processed securely. Brown gave the example of a store card payment terminal, where a single standard device is used across all payment methods because it is an interface trusted by all the payment service companies.

ARM has also joined the Global Platform, a body made of industry companies working on smart card infrastructure development and will be donating the APIs to this new system as part of the development process. It will also release its first secure system training course based around hardware system integration and the TrustZone API next month, followed by a secure systems development training package based on Mobicore, the release of the Trustzone Address Space Controller to secure multiple regions in off-chip memory and the Trustzone reference system later in the year.

ARM and G&D will be demonstrating the new technology at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona from 15 February, so we'll be able to see it running on silicon from one of ARM's licensees. µ