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 optimised 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.

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