ARM, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) formed a new company called Trustonic, which will focus on the development of a GlobalPlatform compliant Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), which will offer a common security standard for connected devices.

“Trustonic builds upon decades of experience between ARM, Gemalto and G&D in developing secure technology for connected devices. The launch of Trustonic marks a turning point in our connected world. It will enable us to trust our smart connected devices to protect us as they deliver essential services and innovative user experiences,” said Ben Cade, chief executive officer of Trustonic.

The company’s technology is promises to enable service providers to innovate, expand and simplify user experiences in areas such as enterprise, commerce, payments and entertainment. The TEE will be built upon ARM TrustZone technology found at the heart of today’s leading system-on-chips, combined with leading security software and management systems contributed by Gemalto and G&D. Services that require high trust in people’s connected devices can gain access to the TEE on demand.

A Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) is a secure area that resides in the application processor of an electronic device. Separated by hardware from the main operating system, a TEE ensures the secure storage and processing of sensitive data and trusted applications. It protects the integrity and confidentiality of key resources, such as the user interface and service provider assets. A TEE manages and executes trusted applications built in by device makers as well as trusted applications installed as people demand them. Trusted applications running in a TEE have access to the full power of a device's main processor and memory, while hardware isolation protects these from user installed apps running in a main operating system. Software and cryptographic isolation inside the TEE protect the trusted applications contained within from each other. Device and chip makers use TEEs to build platforms that have trust built in from the start, while service and content providers rely on integral trust to start launching innovative services and new business opportunities.

“Trustonic will accelerate the adoption and widespread use of ARM TrustZone technology in a diverse set of trusted enterprise, commerce and entertainment services by delivering a Trusted Execution Environment to the broad ARM ecosystem," said Warren East, chief executive officer of ARM.

Numerous companies, including 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Cisco, Discretix, Good Technology, Inside Secure, Irdeto, MasterCard, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics, Sprint, Symantec, and Wave Systems, plan to work with Trustonic and adopt the TEE.

Trustonic will enable a connected device experience that begins and ends in complete security, which will eventually help all parties to take advantage of cutting-edge mobile devices:

• Consumers will benefit from enhanced services; they will enjoy content on any screen, experience simpler, faster and safer payments and be able to use their device of choice at home or work.
• Service providers will be able to trust in people’s devices offering customers the services they want on the smart devices of their choice.
• Network operators have the option to incorporate revenue generating value added services, such as enterprise security, payment services, and convergent service charging, to existing contracts.
• Electronic device makers can integrate an application and service-independent security platform that isolates and protects sensitive assets such as passcodes, fingerprints and certificates, all of which enrich, expand and accelerate people’s digital lives with a seamless user experience.
• Silicon partners will benefit from embedded security at the core of their system-on-chips that will attract high value services.

Tags: ARM, G&D, Trustonic, TrustZone, Cisco, Discretix, Good Technology, Inside Secure, Irdeto, MasterCard, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics, Sprint, Symantec, Wave Systems