July 20, 2016
AACHEN, Germany, 18 July 2016 — Utimaco, the leading manufacturer of hardware-based security technology (Hardware Security Modules, HSM), today announced its partnering with payment software specialist Abrantix to offer enhanced EMV and ep2 functionality to Utimaco’s hardware security module (HSM). With the integration, payment users can secure transactions in accordance with international standards and provide their customers with added security. The complete solution is available now from Abrantix.
- Added EMV and ep2 functionality for processing card transactions enable organizations to meet international EMV standard
“With Abrantix’s EMV enhancement, our HSMs now meet all requirements for international payments and are ideally suited for payment processing,” said Malte Pollmann, CEO of Utimaco.
The enhancement of Utimaco’s HSM series allows payment card transactions to be processed in accordance with the international EMV (Europay International, MasterCard and VISA) standard, which is the basis for payments using all major credit cards such as VISA, MasterCard and American Express. The payment industry’s global standard defines the specifications for payment cards with processor chips, as well as for the associated chip card devices, such as POS terminals and ATMs.
With payment card transactions, all security-related operations – such as the session key derivation and validation of the application cryptogram – take place in the HSM. In order to ensure the required security level, the modules must fully meet the EMV standard.
Abrantix has also created an enhancement for processing ep2 – the payment protocol created in Switzerland. This component performs all ep2 security operations in the HSM. With this addition, Swiss and European payment providers can connect Utimaco’s HSM to all ep2 services without needing further adaptation or steps.
The ep2 standard was introduced on 31 May 2003, and defines the EFT/POS infrastructure of credit and debit card terminals and vending machines in Switzerland. Approximately 90 percent of Swiss payment terminals now run on the new ep2 standard. The standard is based on the global EMV standard, which defines the processing of the chip card.
Both EMV and ep2 modules were optimised for the processing of payment transactions, and include call-chaining, which optimises the roundtrips using the HSM and can handle large amounts of traffic well. The call-chaining capability allows users to run multiple HSM actions via a single command in order to achieve better performance.
“Utimaco has always been a very reliable partner providing high quality products,” said Ralph Kohler, Chief Technology Officer at Abrantix. “Thanks to some good collaborative work, we have been able to develop these enhancements so that they meet the stringent requirements of the payment industry in terms of security and availability.”
About Abrantix AG
Abrantix Ltd. was founded in Zürich in the year 2001. Abrantix is a private and independent company which is specialized in payment software engineering. They are characterised by their many years of project experience, with a large market and development knowledge know-how Abrantix is the ideal partner for the realisation of your software project in electronic payment transactions.
The headquarters of Abrantix lies in the heart of Zürich, we have international representation in Newcastle Australia. Today we realise payment projects in over 19 countries and thus take care of efficient, safe and high quality electronic payment systems around the globe. For more information, visit www.abrantix.com
About Utimaco IS GmbH
Utimaco is a leading manufacturer of hardware-based security solutions that provide the root of trust to keep cryptographic keys safe, secure critical digital infrastructures and protect high value data assets. Only Utimaco delivers a general purpose hardware security module (HSM) as a customizable platform to easily integrate into existing software solutions, embed business logic and build secure applications. Tens of thousands of enterprise and infrastructure companies rely on Utimaco to guard IP against internal and external threats and protect hundreds of millions of consumers globally. Visit Utimaco at hsm.utimaco.com
