Thales's payShield Cardholder Authentication safeguards credit card information for payment processors, helping reduce online fraud

Now available for nShield the newest generation of Thales Hardware Security Modules designed for enhanced performance

Weston, FL and Cambridge UK – 1 February 2010: Thales, leader in information systems and communications security, announces that Thales’s payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield is now available for its nShield Connect and nShield PCI Express hardware security modules (HSMs). Thales’s payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield authenticates credit card users and protects encryption key transfers, safeguarding credit card information and assisting with regulatory compliance such as PCI. payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield is already widely deployed in web-based applications for MasterCard’s Chip Authentication Program (CAP) and Visa’s Dynamic Passcode Authentication (DPA) for online banking and 3D-Secure applications such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode for online payments.

Expanding the supported platforms for Thales’s payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield supports customers that are upgrading their mission-critical environments using Thales nShield Connect, the industry’s only HSM with dual, hot-swappable power supplies for enhanced business continuity. This ensures that card authentication systems have maximum uptime, ensuring customer satisfaction and avoiding failed financial transactions.

Thales’s payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield is easy to integrate with web service technologies such as Java and features a C library for integration with third party products. The solution is often deployed with off-the-shelf cardholder authentication solutions from ActivIdentity, Arcot, Gemalto, and RSA.

“Thales is a global leader in payments security with more than 70 percent of global payment card transactions protected by Thales security solutions,” says Franck Greverie, Vice President, Managing Director for the information systems security activities of Thales. “payShield Cardholder Authentication already plays a critical part in many of the worlds Card Associations to provide the most advanced credit card authentication systems. This product update demonstrates our continued dedication to the payments industry and our commitment to developing the nCipher product line. payShield Cardholder Authentication for nShield effectively enables our customers to protect against fraud in online banking and card-not-present (CNP) transactions.”

For additional commentary on trends in payment security, please visit www.PaymentsSecurity.com.