Nok Nok Labs intros new mobile security product

Nok Nok Labs, an authentication comapny and a founding member of the FIDO Alliance, Wednesday announced the addition of Trusted User Interface capability to the FIDO-Ready NNL S3 Authentication Suite, according to a press release. The product, delivered with Trustonic's ARM TrustZone-based Trusted Execution Environment, is intended to provide strong security across mobile payments, m-commerce and the entire payments ecosystem, by ensuring that all user authentication and transaction verification can be isolated from the Rich OS, increasing protection against malware attacks and providing strong consumer protection.

Nok Nok said in the announcement that the Trusted UI functionality, which is leveraged in the FIDO specifications to support Transaction Confirmation, enables it to deliver stronger end-to-end security. Service providers can use the Nok Nok product to deliver better security assurances to their customers and to provide them with more secure online transactions, according to the press releaese. Trusted UI supports the implementation of a secure pin pad for devices where no biometric verification methods are present, it also prevents "Man-in-the-Browser" attacks by implementing the FIDO authenticator using this secure pin pad and transaction confirmation display. Trusted UI ensures that only actual users and not malware can enter the PIN, according to the press release. The user sees the transaction and has to approve it, so "what you see is what you sign" — the content of the signed message cannot be changed.

"Consumers can already replace passwords with fingerprint authentication on smartphones and tablets which utilize standards-based specifications such as FIDO," Rob Coombs, security marketing director of ARM, said in a statement. "Nok Nok Labs' inclusion of a trusted user interface based on ARM TrustZone technology brings advanced hardware-based security to FIDO implementations, offering increased confidence to consumers and cloud service providers. It will help to accelerate the move to simpler, stronger authentication for everyone."

Source: Mobile payments today