Thales hardware protects customer information and transaction processing from internal and external threats

Seoul, Korea – 16 November 2010 – Thales, leader in information systems and communication security, announces that Suhyup Bank has selected the Thales HSM8000 host security modules to help secure its next-generation NEXTRO project.

“Suhyup Bank’s NEXTRO project aims to establish an improved financial system for the bank and is due for completion in October 2011,” says Ho-Ik Kim, deputy general manager at Suhyup Bank. “The addition of Thales HSM 8000s will provide the powerful cryptographic facilities that are needed to secure our financial transactions. As a result transaction processing and customer card transaction information will be better protected from both internal and external security threats.”

“We are also considering participation in the project being run by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC) to connect to the global ATM network between countries,” continues Kim. “We therefore chose to deploy an HSM that is certified to the international security regulation FIPS 140-2 Level 3. We will continue to work with the relevant companies to ensure that a perfect system can be established so that no problems occur for our customers with overseas transactions.”

Thales HSM 8000 is designed specifically to meet the needs of the payments industry with cryptographic support for the issuance of payment cards and the switching and authorization of transactions. Thales HSM technology has already been adopted by every major card scheme around the world and currently protects more than 70% of the world’s card transactions. Fully compliant with the financial industry’s security audit requirements HSM 8000 is certified to FIPS 140-2 level 3, one of the most widely recognized and stringent security standards.

“It is a pleasure working with organizations such as Suhyup Bank to assist them in achieving their business objectives – secure financial transactions.  Thales payment Host Security Modules have been trusted to secure financial transactions for more than 40 years and working with leading financial institutions globally like Suhyup Bank demonstrates our continued leadership in this market,” says Franck Greverie, Vice President of the information technology security activities of Thales. “

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