35% of smartphones sold in H1 2020 had chipset security: Report

"A trusted execution environment (TEE) is a secure area of the main processor which runs its OS and communicates with the main OS via a restricted interface. The strong box approach is more secure," explained Research Vice President Neil Shah.

New Delhi: Nearly 35 per cent smartphones sold globally in the first half of 2020 had hardware security embedded in them, a new report has said. Apple led the secure chipset market in H1 2020 with 39 per cent share.

According to latest research from Counterpoint’s Component Practice, this share is expected to reach 38 per cent in 2021.

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Hardware-backed security (strong box) means that keys are stored in the secure element, which is a separate microchip.

“A trusted execution environment (TEE) is a secure area of the main processor which runs its OS and communicates with the main OS via a restricted interface. The strong box approach is more secure,” explained Research Vice President Neil Shah.

“Apple’s portfolio for 2020 has an embedded secure element in the A Series chipsets,” he added.

Smartphones have become vulnerable to attacks. We use them for banking, financial transactions, biometrics, user data and even as digital keys for smart homes and automobiles.

“Therefore, the need for hardware security in smartphones is stronger than ever,” said Research Analyst Parv Sharma.

“Hardware security is being adopted not only in the premium segment smartphones but has trickled down to the mid-segment as well,” he added.

The sales of secure smartphones declined 6 per cent in H1 2020 compared to H1 2019.

“The decline is due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, which led to reduced overall smartphone sales in H1 2020,” Sharma noted.

Huawei has also implemented an integrated secure element (inSE) in its SoCs.

“But its share will decline due to US restrictions. Qualcomm has adopted a secure element as a secure processing unit (SPU) in the Snapdragon 800 Series,” Shah said.

Qualcomm has also trickled down to the Snapdragon 700 Series in the mid-end segment.

“Samsung implements a physically unclonable function (PUF) which serves as a unique identifier. Samsung has also used a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) in the Galaxy A Quantum to make the device more secure,” Shah explained.