Industry associations collaborate to drive open source standards that simplify security design for hardware developers and enhance the security of IoT devices and processors.
GlobalPlatform, the standard for secure digital services and devices, RISC-V International, a global non-profit consortium, are pleased to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
Collaboration between the two organizations will help accelerate the development of open standards for the hardware design of embedded components in connected devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). This includes processors embedded with Trusted Execution Environment (TEEs), which are witnessing significant growth.
In 2019, GlobalPlatform reported a 50 percent year-on-year increase in the number of GlobalPlatform-compliant TEEs being shipped. Aligning specifications and exchanging information on known hardware vulnerabilities and the required functionalities to overcome them, will enable GlobalPlatform and RISC-V to update each organization’s their respective technical documents and frameworks to address the evolving security needs of the IoT ecosystem. Short to mid-term examples are expected to include a focus on application programming interfaces (APIs) for the TEE, as well as microcontroller (MCU) protection profiles and the appropriate security extensions.
“A key objective of RISC-V is to bring the industry together and enable a new era of collaborative, open source hardware development,” says Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “Bringing the major open source hardware and security standardization organizations together represents a sizable leap forward in enabling secure hardware development. We look forward to working with GlobalPlatform to bring real benefits to the ecosystem.”
Gil Bernabeu, Technical Director at GlobalPlatform, adds:
“GlobalPlatform has established strong collaborative relationships with key industry partners across the world and we are pleased to count RISC-V among them.”
“Standardized hardware security provides a trusted platform for innovation. Secure components that deliver multiple security and privacy benefits are increasingly being used for more advanced IoT use cases, like healthtech, connected cars and homes, and Industry 4.0. As the IoT ecosystem expands, we look forward to working with RISC-V to align our technical documents and meet the needs of device makers, enabling innovative, secure solutions to be more quickly and cost effectively brought to market.”