Thales announces advanced security for automotive, FinTech and IoT with new light-weight cryptographic curve support in nShield HSMs

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cybersecurity and data security, announces its nShield hardware security modules (HSMs) now support Edwards and Brainpool elliptic cryptographic curves (ECC) to meet the security and data integrity requirements for the latest connected cars, FinTech, and enterprise-class IoT solutions.

Patrick Daly, research analyst at 451 Research explains:
"Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is used for exchanging small cryptographic keys which require less resources to obtain the same levels of security provided by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) protocols. The explosion of the IoT and connected devices that require secure, high-scale, and often lightweight communication has accelerated the adoption of ECC protocols far beyond SSL webpages. Currently there is no clear winner for ECC protocols for IoT security because of patents, concerns around standardization, and competing options. It is a wise practice to invest in infrastructure with broad ECC support as we expect the market to remain dynamic for several years."

A modern vehicle houses around 100 electronic control units (ECUs), each relying on dedicated digital certificates to authenticate in-car networks and external management services. For the system to deliver a safe and responsive customer experience, rapid cryptographic computations are required from devices with limited processing power and memory. Brainpool and Edwards ECC solutions, which can be optimized to reduce processing requirements, are becoming more commonly deployed to meet this need.

Paul Jarvie, Director, Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network (AESIN) says:
"As the automotive industry continues to innovate at a dynamic rate, it is important that security technology does not lag behind or data speed and integrity can be extremely vulnerable. Solutions that offer advanced capabilities such as ECC support will allow automotive applications to thrive by ensuring optimal efficiency and performance are maintained."

Peter Galvin, chief strategy officer for Thales eSecurity says:
"At Thales, we are constantly innovating to meet the dynamic changes in the market, and to add important features to our products based on the needs of our customers. With our latest nShield release, we address the demand for a higher degree of efficiency in emerging cloud based applications in industries such as automotive, FinTech and IoT."

Support for Edwards and Brainpool ECC and new secure logging capabilities are available in the latest version of Thales nShield Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). For more information, visit our website.

Industry insight and views on the latest data security trends can be found on the Thales eSecurity blog at blog.thalesesecurity.com.

Follow Thales eSecurity on Twitter @Thalesesecurity, and on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About AESIN
The Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network (AESIN) www.aesin.org.uk is a dedicated UK initiative focused on the accelerated and advanced delivery of Electronic Systems (ES) into vehicles and infrastructure operated by the UK Deep Tech Trade Association ? TechWorks https://www.techworks.org.uk/

About Thales eSecurity
Thales eSecurity is a leader in advanced data security solutions and services that deliver trust wherever information is created, shared or stored. We ensure that the data belonging to companies and government entities is both secure and trusted in any environment ? on-premises, in the cloud, in data centers or big data environments ? without sacrificing business agility. Security doesn't just reduce risk, it's an enabler of the digital initiatives that now permeate our daily lives ? digital money, e-identities, healthcare, connected cars and, with the internet of things (IoT), even household devices. Thales provides everything an organization needs to protect and manage its data, identities and intellectual property, and meet regulatory compliance ? through encryption, advanced key management, tokenization, and privileged-user control and high-assurance solutions. Security professionals around the globe rely on Thales to confidently accelerate their organization's digital transformation. Thales eSecurity is part of Thales Group.

About Thales
The people we all rely on to make the world go round ? they rely on Thales. Our customers come to us with big ambitions: to make life better, to keep us safer. Combining a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, our architects design and deliver extraordinary high technology solutions. Solutions that make tomorrow possible, today.  From the bottom of the oceans to the depth of space and cyberspace, we help our customers think smarter and act faster - mastering ever greater complexity and every decisive moment along the way. With 65,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of ?15.8 billion in 2017.

SOURCE Thales