MStar and Irdeto partner to secure Android for pay TV

Thursday, September 8th, 2016
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MStar and Irdeto Partner to Secure Android for Use in Pay TV Set-Top Boxes

AMSTERDAM — MStar Semiconductor, Inc., a leading semiconductor company for display and digital home solutions, and Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform security, today announced a partnership to enable the secure delivery of premium content to Android set-top boxes (STBs). Through this partnership, Irdeto and MStar now provide a comprehensive set of hardware and software security technologies for Android STBs.

Android provides the basis for new user experiences that consumers want and the flexibility that pay TV operators need; however, the platform also presents a major challenge to secure. Providing high-value, premium content requires employing innovative hardware and software security solutions to ensure the platform cannot be compromised. By combining the strength of Irdeto’s dynamic security technologies, including Irdeto Cloaked CA and Irdeto ActiveCloak with the MStar’s SOC implementation of Irdeto FlexiCore, the partnership provides operators with peace-of-mind to securely deploy Android solutions.

Applying security to an open platform like Android is critical given the investment required to roll-out new set-top boxes. Implementing dynamic security technologies such as anti-debug, integrity verification, code diversification and white-box cryptography are crucial to remain secure in a world of evolving threats.

“The Android platform is a convenient platform for operators to deploy many new services to fulfill end-user demand. Integrating Irdeto’s flexible security technology into MStar SOC enables deployment of multiple business models while ensuring a secure platform to protect operators’ revenue. Our integration of Irdeto security on the Android platform with TEE successfully combines the benefits of that OS with robust, future-proof security that can support even the most stringent requirements, such as for 4K or UHD. We are proud to combine forces with Irdeto to present this solution to fulfill our customers’ demand,” said Wayne Tsai, Marketing Director, MStar.

“As the demand to deploy next-generation platforms like Android STBs has increased, so have the number of threats targeting these devices,” said Steeve Huin, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Irdeto. “As a result, it is critical for operators to employ a security solution that is flexible and is able to rapidly respond to changing threats. This collaboration with MStar provides operators with an easy and secure way to leverage Android.”