Industry association GlobalPlatform has officially launched its compliance program trademark. With the appointment of a dedicated program secretariat, established testing infrastructure and qualified test tool providers and laboratories, the program is set to ensure the creation and maintenance of an interoperable, sustainable and trusted end-to-end environment for managing applications on secure chip technology.
GlobalPlatform's dedicated compliance program secretariat will manage all qualification processes - for products, test tools and laboratories - and issue the GlobalPlatform qualified trademark to successful vendors. As the compliance program initially focuses on the GlobalPlatform UICC Configuration, UICCs will be the first to present GlobalPlatform's qualified trademark in the market. A UICC that achieves this qualification offers reassurances to those operating in the mobile services ecosystem that it meets the functional requirements outlined by the industry body.
In the future, GlobalPlatform's trademark will also be applicable to card products issued by banks and governments.
Marc Kekicheff, Chair of GlobalPlatform, comments: "Market stability can only be achieved through the adoption of industry standards and specifications and a commitment from the industry to test, verify and maintain this technology in the future. Following significant resource investment from GlobalPlatform and its membership, we are delighted that all the elements of the compliance program have come together and we are able to officially launch and issue the GlobalPlatform trademark to qualify solutions. With the testing infrastructure in place, GlobalPlatform is now focused on the long-term advancement of this program and expanding into different markets."
At present, GlobalPlatform UICC qualified test tools are available from Barnes International, Collis, FIME and Galitt and GlobalPlatform certified laboratory services from Applus+, FIME, ICT Korea and RFI Global.
In addition to functional compliance, GlobalPlatform is also working to streamline security compliance across the industry that will allow products to be brought to market more effectively. As part of this commitment it released its cross-industry certification model earlier this year, which defines the security evaluation necessary for secure elements with post-issuance capabilities to achieve certification from EMVCo and Common Criteria.
Kekicheff adds: "GlobalPlatform has the knowledge and experience within the secure application sector to connect together multiple markets such as identity, payments, transport and telecoms, by officially maintaining and advancing its specifications. As we have taken the first steps towards delivering this stability with the launch of the GlobalPlatform qualified trademark, we envisage that it will instil confidence in actors across the industry."