A European research project which is designed to get a decent set of security standards for smart phones and tablets has just kicked off.

SEPIA (Secure Embedded Platform with advanced Process Isolation and Anonymity capabilities), wants to define security standards for next-generation mobile devices including smartphones and tablet devices. Involved in the project are  ARM, Brightsight, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and Infineon Technologies, and it is being coordinated by Graz University of Technology. The project is co-financed by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and will run for three years.

Herbert Reul, chair of the European Parliament committee on Industry, Research and Energy, said that SEPIA will fix an ever more pressing security problem that is receiving increased attention on the European level, especially regarding mobile applications like eBanking.

SEPIA standards should allow execution of security-critical applications on mobile phones, while ensuring that personal and confidential data are stored and processed within a separate trusted environment. The hope is that security-critical software will run in a protected and isolated environment, alongside other services such as games and software downloads, without risk of being affected by viruses, Trojans, or other malicious software.