nCipher Security’s 300-plus employees are all officially now working for new owner Entrust Datacard, after the US-based company wrapped up its acquisition Thales’ hardware security module (HSM) spin-off. The move had been demanded by regulators as a condition of April’s Thales-Gemalto merger.
The acquisition extends the Entrust Datacard portfolio to include a general purpose hardware security module offering that provides enhanced cloud, data security, compliance and payments capabilities, the company said. It will retain nCipher’s cybersecurity development center in Cambridge, UK.
HSMs are used to store and protect cryptographic keys.
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“We are extremely pleased to complete this acquisition and bring nCipher’s exceptional talent and technology into the Entrust Datacard portfolio. The need for secure network access and data integrity continues to multiply – from mobile devices and cloud services to connected IoT devices and digital payments. The use of HSMs is expanding across all of these domains. With nCipher now part of our solution portfolio, customers will see benefit from our expanded offerings for the most sensitive, high assurance use cases,” said Todd Wilkinson, president and CEO of Entrust Datacard.
General purpose HSMs are a core component of Entrust Datacard’s solutions and are an underlying part of the security infrastructure of the company’s public key infrastructure (PKI) and secure sockets layer (SSL) offerings.
nCipher Sale: Entrust to Add HSMs to PKI Offering
Entrust Datacard will offer the nCipher solution with its on-premise and managed PKI offerings, and its IoT device credentialing, authorization and lifecycle management offerings, the company said this morning: “By joining Entrust Datacard, nCipher will be able to expand its compliance capabilities from trusted hardware to include trusted identities, and grow its cloud capabilities to offer customers more advanced solutions from Entrust Datacard’s secure hosting facilities.”
nCipher Security is the latest in a string of Entrust Datacard acquisitions (the company is majority owned by billionaire German family the Quandts). Last year it also made a strategic investment in the UK’s CensorNet, which provides a cloud access security broker offering, multi-factor authentication, and web and email security.
The company also bought Copenhagen-based SMS Passcode, CensorNet’s adaptive multi-factor authentication technology solutions provider, at the same time saying: “At a time when other security players are going through large, complex mergers or acquiring and shelving smaller innovators, Entrust Datacard is building strong partnerships through targeted investments and acquisitions.”
The nCipher Security business will continue to be based in Sunrise, Fla., with a cybersecurity development center in Cambridge, UK and a sales support center in Hong Kong. Additional terms of the acquisition are undisclosed.
