EMVCo Virtual TEE Certification

This original report, sponsored by MagicCube, examines the potential impact of EMVCo's pending virtual trusted execution environment (vTEE) certification and the advantages and drawbacks of vTEEs compared to current approaches, such as physical TEEs and secure elements.

From the use of consumer mobile devices as payment acceptance terminals to payment-enabled connected cars, financial applications are finding their way into a rapidly expanding array of consumer devices. And that shows no signs of slowing down. Consumers own nearly 870 million “Internet of things” (IoT) devices, and many of them already have financial and payment capabilities built in, which can be more fully utilized with the right technology — and beyond the world of traditional consumer financial tools. In the payments acceptance space, the move to PIN on glass is the first milestone on the road to enabling the use of commercial off-the-shelf devices, such as consumer-grade smartphones and tablets, as payment terminals.

In all of these applications, as financial data touches more and more devices, there is a growing need for these devices to provide a foundation of trust that the data and applications they process are shielded from tampering and data compromise.

This research report was independently produced by Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin Strategy & Research maintains complete independence in its data collection, findings, and analysis.