News
5.5 billion GlobalPlatform-certified Secure Elements shipped in 2017
October 2018 by Marc Jacob
GlobalPlatform, the standard for secure digital services and devices, has conservatively calculated that more than 5.5 billion Secure Elements (SEs) deployed in 2017 were based on its specifications, an increase of over 1.5 billion from the previous year. Additionally, over the last three years, in excess of 1 billion SEs were embedded within mobile devices, 100% of which were based on GlobalPlatform technology.
GlobalPlatform protects digital services by standardizing and certifying a security hardware / firmware combination, known as a secure component, which acts as an on-device trust anchor. A core focus of GlobalPlatform’s work is the standardization and interoperability of application management within secure components, specifically SEs and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). SE and TEE technologies are now widely-deployed across a range of markets including payments, telecoms, transportation, automotive, IoT, government and enterprise ID.
To enable device manufacturers to proactively market their products as meeting the needs of digital service providers, GlobalPlatform manages a functional certification program for SEs. This objectively illustrates that a device manufacturer’s GlobalPlatform-based secure component and digital service management capabilities are interoperable and meet required security levels, providing reassurance that the digital service can perform as intended in the field.
