The present document specifies a Virtual Machine which is intended for inclusion in the implementation of digital television receivers and Set Top Boxes, and which is able to provide a secured environment for executing Conditional Access kernel or Digital Rights Management client applications. The intention is to provide a uniform execution environment in which such clients can operate in the knowledge that minimum ECI Host performance requirements are met, that a standard API is provided to be used for retrieval of essential security data from content (i.e. encapsulated with content) or via external networks (e.g. the Internet) and where resources can be accessed from the ECI Host environment in a standardized way.