Qualcomm recently announced a new Secure Processing Unit as part of the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, and the company has now announced that this on-die secure element has received the Common Criteria EAL-4+ security certification, which is the gold standard for smart card hardware security assurance and testing.
With this new certification, the Snapdragon 855 haas become the world’s first mobile SoC to achieve such high levels of security assurance. Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Product Management, Jesse Seed said, “Completing the EAL-4+ security certification is a major milestone in our journey to bring smart card levels of security to our Snapdragon customers and users. Use cases that previously required separate security chips will now be possible fully integrated in Snapdragon 855 powered devices.” Seed further added, “This certification is a testament to the industry firsts that Snapdragon 855 brings to market and Qualcomm Technologies’ continued leadership in embedded security.”
With this new technology, Qualcomm hopes to offer its partners the ability to cut down on costs while still maintaining security, and also reaping the benefits that come from including a secure element on the Mobile Platform’s die itself. The company hopes that with the Secure Processing Unit, the Snapdragon 855 could be used as an Android StrongBox Keymaster, and a Gatekeeper.
In fact, Google’s head of Android security and privacy, Dave Kleidermacher said of the Snapdragon 855’s Secure Processing Unit: “Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit makes it possible for our OEMs to meet the stringent Android StrongBox requirements, and we are looking forward to seeing how partners implement it to take advantage of key StrongBox features, such as improvements to credential and payment security.”
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 with the Secure Processing Unit is already in production, and is claimed to offer improved power and performance characteristics in addition to best-in-class security features.
