CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- nCipher plc (LSE: NCH), a global leader in protecting critical enterprise data, announces the immediate availability of its miniHSM – the world’s first embedded hardware security module (HSM). Designed to provide original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with a simple, secure, drop-in solution for data encryption, digital signing and strong authentication, the miniHSM allows nCipher’s customers to integrate pre-validated cryptographic security into a diverse range of product areas, including digital cinema projectors, electronic voting terminals, retail point-of-sale infrastructure, immigration border control and document processing machinery.

“HSMs are already the standard for securing cryptographic keys in servers, where nCipher has been the market leader for many years,” says Richard Moulds, vice president of marketing at nCipher. “With the increasingly widespread use of cryptography, dedicated hardware security technology is now required in a far greater range of devices. Laptops and desktop PCs now arrive from the factory with trusted platform modules (TPMs) installed for key protection and to support the security requirements of desktop software such as Microsoft’s Vista operating system. nCipher has worked with several semiconductor vendors to provide hardware security functionality for devices that fall outside the world of PCs and servers, particularly those in highly cost sensitive markets. The miniHSM fills the remaining gap in the market to offer FIPS-validated (Federal Information Processing Standard) security to developers that require greater flexibility and functionality as they seek to secure a wide range of non-PC based devices that nevertheless handle very sensitive information.”

nCipher Corp. Ltd.