Thales (News - Alert), a provider of information systems and communications security solutions, announced its key management appliance e-Security keyAuthority has achieved Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 3 certification, regarded as one of the most rigorous security test programs in the industry.

Thales keyAuthority features a tamper resistant and tamper evident chassis that provides protection and policy based automation for the entire key management lifecycle ranging from key generation, key distribution, key archival and ultimately key destruction, the company said. The appliance can support up to 25 million keys used by thousands of cryptographic devices.

FIPS 140-2 Level is mandatory in several industry and government sectors and is imperative in creating best practices for organizations seeking to protect sensitive data.

FIPS 140-2 Level validation scheme defines security benchmark for cryptographic devices key managers and hardware security modules (HSMs).  The program is jointly administered by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

Testing for FIPS 140-2 Level validation is performed by certified independent test laboratories with validation ultimately being approved by NIST.

The program supports multiple levels of validation that range from purely software based systems (Level 1) to fully hardened tamper resistant and tamper responsive systems that deliver significantly higher levels of assurance.

“Key management systems protect the keys to the kingdom and therefore become one of the most attractive targets for attackers inside and outside the organization,” said Richard Moulds, vice president, strategy, Thales e-Security, in a statement.

According to Moulds, FIPS 140-2 Level 3 provides a convenient and yet meaningful benchmark to customers who need to deploy systems with enhanced levels of security. This validation of keyAuthority by NIST gives customers the confidence that they need in order to trust the company’s products with their most valuable digital assets, today and into the future.

keyAuthority is the only security hardened solution that supports IBM (News - Alert) tape and disk encryption via its native TKLM (Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager) capability. It also supports Brocade encryption-enabled SAN switches, the company said.