Fingerprint recognition has been possible for many years but ensuring its secure storage and use has been a more recent addition to mobile devices. We have seen fingerprint sensors first appearing in flagship mobile devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 – but last week Xiaomi launched a new phone, including a fingerprint sensor, at a $150 price point. This has been made possible by Xiaomi’s use of Trustonic’s Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) which builds on top of the already existent TrustZone technology that is built into every ARM Cortex-A class processor found in over 90% of mobile devices. This means this functionality can be included without additional chips needing to be designed in. Since it is hardware based it also is the quickest way of processing secure data giving a better user experience. (http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/product-news-xiaomi-unveils-full-metal-redmi-note-3-and-android-or-windows-10-os-mi-pad-2)
But it’s not just Xiaomi who is including the increased security that using the Trusted User Interface functionality of the Trustonic TEE enables. Over the last year Meizu also announced their MX5, Pro 5 and m1 metal that introduces their mTouch 2.0 security and fingerprint recognition which also benefits from the added security of using Trustonic TEE (http://www.meizu.com/en/products/mx5/mtouch.html)
With two leading Chinese mobile device manufacturers making security one of the central features of their new handsets, we expect to see more and more device manufacturers taking a similar approach. It shows the consumer demand to have more secure interactions via their mobile devices and they want this available across a wider range of mobile phones.
