New GlobalPlatform Specification Enables Mobile Service Providers to Manage Applications Remotely Across all Types of Secure Element
19 October 2011 – GlobalPlatform has published a document which allows providers of mobile services to develop remote management* platforms that can be extended to manage applications residing on any type of secure element (SE) in a mobile phone. The impact will be a shorter time to market for service providers choosing to expand support for their application through additional or new mobile phones which use varying SEs, such as a micro SD card, or embedded SE.
The single, standardized administration protocol defined by the new ‘GlobalPlatform Device: Secure Element Remote Application Management v1.0’ Specification, offers further benefits beyond universal SE compatibility for the remote management of applications. It also features a retry policy, which ensures that when connection to a network is lost – due to poor network coverage or mobile phone power outage for example – management scripts continue to be resent until they successfully reach the desired location within the SE.
The protocol within this new specification is fully compatible with the protocol used within the GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.2 – Amendment B. This latter document, which was first published in 2008, allows service providers and application developers to remotely manage applets on a SE within a UICC using the HTTP communication and SSL cryptographic protocols.
Gil Bernabeu, Technical Director of GlobalPlatform, comments: “A standardized approach which enables one administration platform to remotely manage applications across all kinds of SEs will stimulate the mass deployment of SEs within mobile phones, and subsequently more secure mobile service applications. The mobile phone landscape is continuously evolving, with new phone models operating on vastly different technology platforms and using different types of SE emerging all the time; as such this technology addresses a real need among service providers in today’s market, who are seeking a simplified and standardized approach to remote application management across different handset models. Now that this technology has been published, GlobalPlatform’s next focus is on driving its deployment as standard within all phones that support SEs, to ensure that it delivers the optimal benefit to service providers and the wider market on a global scale.”
The ‘GlobalPlatform Device: Secure Element Remote Application Management v1.0’ document, is available for free download from www.globalplatform.org.
*Remote management means the delivery of the management scripts to a SE hosted in a mobile phone – to install or provide data to an application for example – and the management of related responses.
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About GlobalPlatform
GlobalPlatform is a cross industry, not-for-profit association which identifies, develops and publishes specifications which facilitate the secure and interoperable deployment and management of multiple embedded applications on secure chip technology. Its proven technical specifications are regarded as the international industry standard for building a trusted end-to-end solution which serves multiple actors and supports several business models.
The freely available specifications provide the foundation for market convergence and innovative new cross-sector partnerships. The technology has been adopted globally across finance, mobile/telecom, government, healthcare, retail and transit sectors. GlobalPlatform also supports an open compliance program ecosystem to ensure the long-term interoperability of secure chip technology.
As a member-driven association with cross-market representation from all world continents, GlobalPlatform membership is open to any organization operating within this landscape. Its 60+ members contribute to technical committees and market-led task forces. www.globalplatform.org
