GlobalPlatform

GlobalPlatform is a cross industry, non-profit association which identifies, develops and publishes specifications that promote the secure and interoperable deployment and management of multiple applications on secure chip technology.

Organizational structure

GlobalPlatform members drive the organization through a Board of Directors, an Advisory Council, three technical committees and six strategic task forces; government, internet-of-things,^[1] Japan, mobile,^[2] premium content^[3] and security. Day-to-day activity is managed by an executive team comprising an executive director, technical director, operations secretariat and compliance secretariat.

The GlobalPlatform Board of Directors consists of up to 11 Directors from organizations that have joined GlobalPlatform as Full Members.^[4] The Board sets the strategic vision and oversees the management of GlobalPlatform, including setting organization priorities and determining the allocation of the organization's resources. The Board also has final approval of all changes to the specifications.

Task forces are responsible for establishing the business requirements for their respective sectors, then providing those business requirements to the appropriate technical committee for further development. The body also manages a compliance program^[5] and has a dedicated compliance secretariat which acts as registration authority for all qualification claims. It manages the issuance of the compliance trademark to test tools and laboratories, as well as oversee product certification.

Membership

The membership collectively creates organizational strategy and defines technical work priorities for the committees and market task forces.^[6]

The GlobalPlatform membership combines active representation from diverse sectors closely associated with secure chip technology deployment, including payment, mobile NFC, government/ID, transit, healthcare and retail. Sector specific members include payment associations, mobile network operators, public sector organizations and government agencies.^[7]

GlobalPlatform Specifications

GlobalPlatform publishes specifications which address:

SE. GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.2 supports the implementation and management of tamper-resistant chips - such as smart cards and SEs.^[8] This supports the deployment of contactless NFC enabled services to mobile devices,^[9] identity (ID) documents^[10] and advanced services onto smart cards, for example payments, transit or loyalty.

TEE. GlobalPlatform's work to standardize the TEE^[11] - a secure area that resides in the main processor of a connected device which ensures that sensitive data is stored, processed and protected in a trusted environment - supports the needs of smart device stakeholders, such as smartphone and tablet application developers and device manufacturers.

Messaging. GlobalPlatform clarifies how market participants from the finance, mobile NFC, government and transit sectors can connect their backend systems to the SE, TEE and any other actor within a secure application's ecosystem.^[12]

External links

• GlobalPlatform page

See Also

• Uwe Hansmann, Martin S. Nicklous, Thomas Schack, Achim Schneider, Frank Seliger (2002), "6.4 Global Platform", Smart card application development using Java (2nd ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-43202-9.

• GSMA, ‘NFC Mobile Network Operator – Service Provider Interface: Business Process Implementation Guidelines using GlobalPlatform Protocols’. http://www.gsma.com/mobilenfc/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/GSMA-NFC-MNO-SP-Interface-Business-Process-Implementation-v1-0.pdf

• Trusted Computer Group, ‘TPM MOBILE with GlobalPlatform defined Trusted Execution Environment for Comprehensive Mobile Device Security'. http://www.globalplatform.org/documents/whitepapers/TPM_MOBILE_with_Trusted_Execution_Environment.pdf

References