Thales helps Austrian Trust Authority provide fast, simple eIDAS digital signature security

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cybersecurity and data security, announces A-Trust, an Austrian qualified trusted service responsible for issuing digital certificates for the country's citizens and economy to use in electronic transactions, is deploying Thales nShield hardware security modules (HSMs) to protect its certificates and meet compliance regulations.

As of April 2017, a regulation known as RKSV (Registrierkassensicherheitsverordnung, or Cash Registers Security Regulation) went into effect in Austria. The regulation requires that receipts originating from businesses in the retail, hospitality and service sectors be digitally signed and stored using a unique private key assigned to each business owner. A-Trust saw an opportunity to support businesses in their efforts to become RKSV compliant by creating cost-effective solutions capable of automatically fulfilling these mandates. Additionally, the digital signing role of A-Trust's solutions also subjected it to the European Union's Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS) regulation, developed to help establish a single European market for secure electronic commerce.

With security top of mind, A-Trust turned to Thales to support it with fast, simple digital signature security. Thales nShield is a hardened, tamper-resistant, FIPS-compliant platform that supports encryption and digital signing along with key generation and protection. It is also certified to Common Criteria (CC) EAL4+, which recognizes nShield HSMs as Secure Signature Creation Devices (SSCDs). This means that nShield can provide the digital signatures, time stamps and other transactional data necessary to enable A-Trust to comply with RKSV and the cross-border standards mandated by eIDAS.

Thales nShield has helped A-Trust meet a number of business needs, including:

• Easing the burden on merchants by offering them a device (nShield HSM) to support certified digital signatures
• Creating a cost-effective, simple-to-use solution
• Enabling scalability to facilitate A-Trust's ambitious growth plans

Michael Butz, CEO at A-Trust
"The Thales nShield HSM enables us to offer a simple-to-use-solution based on full electronic end-to-end compliance with all applicable regulations. The ease of deployment facilitates our growing visibility across Europe which has created a huge demand for our products. Trust, integrity and security are the foundations of our company, and Thales helps us to achieve those goals."

Kai Zobel, Regional Sales Director D-A-CH for Thales eSecurity says:
"Companies on the hook for meeting compliance regulations – such as eIDAS – have to take the utmost diligence and care in ensuring their solutions are trustworthy. Thales HSMs serve as the root of trust, creating high assurance credentials that ensure the integrity of a transaction or application, which is vital in underpinning the digital transformation of industry and enterprises."

Find out more about how Thales is helping A-Trust by reading the case study.

For industry insight and views on the latest data security trends check out our blog. You can follow Thales eSecurity on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About Thales eSecurity
Thales eSecurity is the 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 centres 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 organisation needs to protect and manage its data, identities and intellectual property, and meet regulatory compliance – through encryption, advanced key management, tokenisation, and privileged-user control and high-assurance solutions. Security professionals around the globe rely on Thales to confidently accelerate their organisation's digital transformation. Thales eSecurity is part of Thales Group.

Industry insight and views on the latest key management 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 Thales
Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14.9 billion in 2016. With over 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.

Positioned as a value-added systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider, Thales is one of Europe's leading players in the security market. The Group's security teams work with government agencies, local authorities and enterprise customers to develop and deploy integrated, resilient solutions to protect citizens, sensitive data and critical infrastructure.

Thales offers world-class cryptographic capabilities and is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for defence, government, critical infrastructure providers, telecom companies, industry and the financial services sector. With a value proposition addressing the entire data security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, data protection, digital trust management and design, development, integration, certification and security maintenance of cybersecured systems, to cyberthreat management, intrusion detection and security supervision through cybersecurity Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Hong Kong.

SOURCE Thales

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