New Gemalto Solution Allows HSM to Split Into Multiple Virtual HSMs

Gemalto has announced a new payment hardware security module (HSM) system that can be partitioned into multiple virtual HSMs.

Called the SafeNet Luna EFT Payment HSM, the system could help to keep financial institutions’ cryptographic infrastructure more streamlined and less complicated. That’s because, as Gemalto explains, organizations offering digital services like digital, P2P payments generally use an individual HSM for each transaction; whereas Gemalto’s new solution can leverage one HSM for multiple such deployments.

In a statement announcing the solution, Gemalto Encryption Products SVP Todd Moore asserted that Gemalto’s SafeNet HSM already “has a proven track record of protecting over $1 trillion transactions worldwide every day,” adding that the new partitioning capability will help clients “to reduce hardware , improve cloud usability, and decrease transaction processing times all while maintaining the same level of security required by the financial industry.”

The solution arrives at a time when digital payments are increasing dramatically, with a recent report pointing to a substantial rise in mobile-based transactions alone, while Visa recently announced a QR code-based P2P payments system for merchants and PayPal is preparing to launch its own mobile payments app next year.