The famous bearded sage and luminary of the computer security industry, Bruce Schneier, famously said: “Security is process, not a product.” Whilst this is generally accepted it is, perhaps, little understood or appreciated. The truth of the matter is that, in real life, security is about managing risk. It is a constant trade-off between the competing parameters of convenience and simplicity against those of complexity and the cost of failure. The Digital Locksmiths’ aim is to help our customers identify and understand the risks inherent in the computational security they chose to deploy. Armed with this knowledge they are better able to manage the risk; thereby offering security.
Consultancy
If your projects involve cryptography, smartcards or other similar security devices then the Digital Locksmiths can help. Our wide experience in secure applications from requirements capture through to deployment means that we can fill in, or provide back-up, at all stages of a project.
Our consulting expertise includes choice of chip technology, operating systems, security architectures, application software functionality and standards compliance. The Digital Locksmiths can also provide strategic consultancy on a range of projects relating to card and data specification, identifying suitability for purpose and background IP issues.
As an independent company, we provide impartial and cost effective advice.
Design
Years of experience implementing and analysing secure systems means the Digital Locksmiths have unparalleled experience. It is very probable that we have direct experience of projects similar to the ones you may be planning now. This knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of different solutions and the potential pitfalls you may encounter during implementation means we can help you quickly design good solutions.
Our in-depth understanding of security architectures allows us to provide designs that reflect the wider requirement for system security, where the smartcard application might only provide a subset of the security enforcing functions. Our overall view of security ensures that our designs present a consistent and coherent approach to developing quality solutions.
Benefiting from our experience will speed up your development cycle or decrease your exposure to risk (hopefully both!). It will definitely improve your security.
Implementation
Programming embedded devices requires rare skills and patience. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find programmers with experience of programming in assembler languages and of directly controlling hardware via its registers. Development is often slow and difficult due to low quality development tools and imperfect compilers. the Digital Locksmiths have vast experience of the widest range of CPU architectures and their associated development tools. This familiarity with the target platforms and their tools, combined with prior experience of the required algorithms, enables us to more quickly port and test programs. Our appreciation of the idiosyncrasies of the development tools enables us to accurately predict the development time scales and offer highly economical development services to clients.
Our development capability includes a variety of platforms, operating systems, communication protocols (i.e contact and contactless) and application types.
JavaCard Applications: We have developed payment applications (EMV and ePurse),passport applications, ticketing applications, digital signature applications and file handling applications for the JavaCard platform.
MULTOS Applications: Our experience of MULTOS, gained during the development of the first implementaiton of the operating system, provides us with the capability to rapidly develop secure, sophisticated applications for the MULTOS platform.
Bespoke Operating Systems and Applications: Bespoke implementations often offer cost benefits over JavaCard or MULTOS applications. The Digital Locksmiths have a history of implementing applications and operating systems that conform to the highest standards and meet the security requirements of applications such as EMV and ICAO. Our implementations give the lower cost of ownership provided by bespoke products without compromising on security or performance.
In addition to smartcard applications and operating systems, we have extensive experience developing supporting systems: terminals, personalization systems and security systems fpr a wide variety of platforms. We bring the same commitment to security in the development of these systems as we do to the implementation of smartcard applications.
Engaging the Digital Locksmiths
Digital Locksmiths offer flexible terms of engagement to all customers, with substantial discounts for longer projects. This means no job is too small or too large for consideration.
Impartial advisors: For clients, engaging with third party projects that involve aspects of smartcards or security with which they are unfamiliar, we frequently act as the customer's friend. In this role we review requirements and provide considered responses and generally assist the client in preparing their proposals for projects. We offer this service at our consulting rate.
Project analysis: This is our preferred method of initial engagement on design and development projects. In this phase we analyse your requirements, propose appropriate solutions and estimate resources and time lines. During this stage we can consider any, or all, aspects of the proposed project; target components, development tools, application designs, etc; all with a view to enabling the client pick the most cost effective solution. The client receives a considered report describing the requirements of their task. The final report is the property of the client and may be used to solicit tenders for implementation from third parties. Such work is carried out as a consulting project and will be discounted to development rates if the client chooses the Digital Locksmiths to implement the proposal.
Application Design or Review: the Digital Locksmiths can prepare detailed design documentation applicable to their chosen development. We can design high level protocols and system architectures; leaving the details for the client's programmers to implement. Or we can design right down the functional subroutine level, prescribing individual operations with a view to extracting the optimal performance with respect to speed or security at key stages of the processing. Design projects are, by their very nature, prolonged engagements and are performed at a discounted consultation rate.
- Implementation: For implementation we ask that the client provides the development tools, on loan, for the duration of the project. In return we develop and test the application and deliver it to the client in demonstrable form on the tools supplied. We operate two rates for development; i) one where the client becomes the sole owner of the developed code and is free to re-use and resell the resulting code. And ii) a discounted rate where Digital Locksmiths retains the rights to further develop the code and reuse it in future projects.
We understand the issues our customers face; with increasing pressures of time-to-market, cost, functionality and security. Whether you are planning an entirely new card programme, or taking an existing operation to the next level, we have the experience and expertise to help bring your card solutions to market faster and at less cost.
Rates
We offer two charging rates depending on the nature of the engagement and both rates are substantially discounted for longer periods of engagement.
Our premium rate is for consultancy and design. Here we distil our years of experience to provide answers or solutions to our client’s questions.
Our development rate is for implementation projects where we perform code development and testing at our own premises. This rate may be further discounted depending on the terms agreed for the ownership and rights to the developed code.
Contact us for details of the rates and to discuss your requirements.
Our terms and conditions are available here.
