Recent reports indicate widespread pirating of iPhone games.

Piracy is a fact of life, however at these levels its places a massive question mark over the viability of mobile game developers. When properly implemented digital rights management (DRM) is effective in ensuring a sustainable business for the developer community, offering attractive usage models and encouraging the legal usage of the content.

In order for DRM to be effective it must be incorporated into the device from the ground up. DRM needs to have a “root of trust” in the application processor hardware, moreover the DRM application must be tightly integrated into the device OS. The device firmware and OS should also be better protected, with verification mechanisms, deployed at boot and run time. These embedded security mechanisms together with secure execution environment, secure key storage and robust crypto engines will also limit “Jailbreak” attacks.

It is estimated that the cost of fixing a security problem grows by a factor of 10 for each successive phase of the product life cycle. While eliminating security breaks entirely is close to impossible, designing security into the system from the start creates a solution that is far more effective and ultimately significantly cheaper in the long run.