If you own a GSM phone, you are ready for mobile e-commerce EURESCOM Demonstrates Secure GSM-to-Web Connection (Heidelberg) April 10, 2000 |
EURESCOM GmbH, the leading European Institute in telecommunications research, today announced the successful integration of the GSM security infrastructure into the Internet. This marks the first step of the work of EURESCOM Project P1005 aiming to provide trusted wireless-to-Web applications and services, and to develop a secure Internet-based architecture for mobile e-commerce. This integration provides a security solution the Internet is waiting for: electronic transactions over the Internet are secured using a GSM phone. Users are empowered to conveniently make on-line payments and control interactions with Web shops. Online merchants benefit by having access to the widely deployed GSM security infrastructure and are assured that they can securely interact with any customer. All this is made possible through the innovative power of the leading European network operators conducting joint R&D in EURESCOM. Every GSM phone includes a smart card, a so-called SIM, which already holds unique customer information and is at the edge of the GSM security infrastructure. By turning the SIM into a Web server the GSM phone can provide security services to the Internet using the Web-standard HTTP protocol. GSM's short message protocol (SMS) delivers the lingua franca of the Web to the Web server on the SIM inside the GSM mobile phone. The Web server can return data stored on the SIM in HTML format, can activate GSM SIM-Toolkit applications as server-side CGI scripts, or can initiate on-line payments. "Everybody who owns a GSM mobile phone is ready for e-commerce," says Anastasius Gavras, project supervisor at EURESCOM GmbH, "Any merchant can, via the SIM in your GSM phone, ask you to confirm an action, like a purchase order or a payment authorization. Imagine giving out your GSM phone number instead of your credit card number." "Creating a Web server on a SIM chip represents a breakthrough in development tools for trusted mobile e-commerce. Establishing a direct HTTP connection between the highly secure SIM chip and any Web browser is the first step in deploying a full suite of value-added wireless applications for consumers and businesses," said Mary J. Cronin, Mobile-Mind President. "Mobile-Mind is working with world-class partners like EURESCOM Project P1005 participants to introduce a new level of trust, flexibility, and speed of implementation to mobile e-commerce through smart phones." "Using standard Internet protocols makes it much easier for Web programmers and authors to build applications that harness the unique properties of the GSM phone", says Joachim Posegga, initiator and participant of EURESCOM Project P1005. "250 Million SIM cards in use today can literally overnight become part of the Internet marking a major milestone of mobile e-commerce." The work is the result of a joint effort of EURESCOM Project P1005, Radiomobil s.a. and Mobile-Mind Inc. The EURESCOM Project P1005: "Jini & Friends @ Work: Towards Secure Service Access", is a joint project of British Telecommunications plc, Deutsche Telekom AG, Finnet Group, France Télécom SA, Portugal Telecom S.A., Swisscom AG, and Eircom plc. About EURESCOM GmbH EURESCOM is an institute for performing collaborative projects on research and strategic studies in all areas of telecommunications. It was founded in 1991 and is located in Heidelberg, Germany. Currently, there are 24 Shareholders from 23 European countries involved in EURESCOM and it is open to any network operator or service provider who wishes to join. EURESCOM's main function is to perform collaborative R&D projects, which identify and develop new telecommunications scenarios, network solutions and advanced services. In this role it acts as a forum for sharing visions and concepts, an initiator of innovative activities, and a facilitator for common undertakings on technical issues. For more information about EURESCOM please visit: http://www.eurescom.de About Radiomobil s.a. RadioMobil is the operator of the Czech GSM network Paegas with more than a million customers. As one of the first operators in the world, RadioMobil introduced SIM toolkit-based GSM banking services already in mid-1998. Now it is offering next generation SIM cards supporting ten different banks, bi-directional end-to-end encryption and secure e-commerce applications. Radiomobil was awarded "Best GSM Operator in Technical Innovation Category" for their SMS and SIM Toolkit Value Added Services by the GSM Association in Cannes, February 1999. For more information about Radiomobil Paegas please visit: http://www.paegas.cz About Mobile-Mind Mobile-Mind, Inc. is a Boston-based provider of trusted wireless-to-Web applications and services. The company’s suite of Mobile-Action applications provides businesses and mobile professionals with secure, action-oriented connections between smart phones and Web servers. For more information, contact: Further technical information is available from P1005 |