Mobile and Wireless - Built-In Security

Mobile and wireless technology with its freedom of flexibility, the increase of workplace productivity, which answer the need for communication and accessing information from anywhere and anytime, appeals to enterprise and home customers alike to take the next step and integrate wireless technology into their infrastructure.

The great benefits mobile and wireless technology offers are obvious but as wireless technology keeps expanding, more and more security news hit the wires highlighting the threats wireless networks are facing, thus emphasizing the risks of deploying wireless networks.

As an answer to these growing threats, various solutions had been developed; starting from the built-in security features that the wireless standard provides and ending up with various third-party tools, all serve one purpose – to provide a solution for setting up a secure infrastructure for wireless networks and mitigating the risks of deploying wireless technology.

In April this year, Intel published an announcement of a new processor family “PXA27X” which targets PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and wireless devices. As a solution to the growing number of wireless security threats, Intel introduced a new built-in security feature – Intel Trusted Wireless Platform.

Intel Trusted Wireless Platform is a combined hardware-software security solution, which greatly reduces the wireless-related risks and provides a secure framework for wireless networks. The platform guarantees full-time protection by providing a rich and wide array of security services, such as: security protocols, cryptography and more. The solution consists of a set of five security components: Trusted Boot ROM, Wireless Trusted Module, Security Software, Protected Storage and Physical Protection.

• Trusted Boot ROM
  Intel Trusted Boot ROM is the security component, which checks the integrity of the platform and the applications loaded into the memory. It has the ability to recognize virus activities, coding errors or any malicious software and in any case the core configuration is altered, the services offered by the platform are limited.



• Wireless Trusted Module
  Wireless Trusted Module is the place to process sensitive and secret information. The module combines in itself a vast rang of cryptographic algorithms to keep the information secure. The module is designed in such way that doesn’t allow modification of the data until completion of the process.



• Security Software
  This feature allows the operating system and user-level applications to access the Intel Trusted Wireless Platform through cryptographic APIs, without knowing the specific split of functions between the hardware and the software. The application interface is provided by Intel IPP – Intel Integrated Performance Primitive.



• Protected Storage
  This component allows the user to store sensitive and secret information on a non-volatile memory, which is protected by a strong cryptographic algorithm. This capability also provides integrity check, which keeps hackers from tempering with the data.



• Physical Protection
  Physical protection of critical and vital components is done by placing the entire system on a chip (SoC). This component guarantees that none of Intel Trusted Wireless Platform security components are removed, replaced or tampered with.