DRM implementation on Symbian v9.x

During the Smartphone Show, one of the companies that held presentation was Discretix. The company was founded in February 2000, presently has more than 70 employees in Europe, Israel and the U.S. and is the leading embeded security solutions provider, based on open, compliant standards. Discretix is also a partner of recently acquired UIQ Technology.

As I wasn’t able to attend the Smartphone Show, guys from Discretix (Motty Alon and Jacob Greenblatt) made their presentation for me via the Internet. The presentation addresses the key issues surrounding DRM implementation on Symbian V9.x platform. In the following sentences, I’ll try to summarize the presentation. Let’s start…

Current state of the DRM industry is a real jungle. There are many DRM schemes available - some regional (i-mode, CPRM), some from the well-known companies (Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s WM-DRM) and organizations (OMA DRM); new ones are also emerging (Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s FairPlay, Coral’s Marlin). To make things even worse, some of the available DRM solutions are very processor and battery demanding, and are not 100% secure (we saw both Microsoft’s and Apple’s DRM hacked).

The conclusion is that a multi-scheme robust DRM client architecture, relying on both hardware security and security middleware is needed. All parties should be interested in such solution:

• Mobile operators want additional revenue from their users,
• Content providers don’t want pirate copies of their products,
• DRM scheme providing companies want to keep developing their solutions, and
• Compliance bodies want to retain piece and order.

However, the end user is also a part of the threat model and the device must be protected against malware installed by the legal owner of the device. Furthermore, installed security measurements must be cost effective and should not affect battery life and system performance.

To address the mentioned issues, Discretix developed both hardware and software-based solutions to deal with the complex data flows faster, thus enabling proper DRM implementation for the end user.

Still, some challenges remain:

• Symbian Content Access Framework (CAF) is OMA centric - some features from the other DRM’s schemes are missing
• White-list management is missing
• MTP support is missing

The presentation is available in PDF format, and you can get it from here.