HSM Technology Today
In This Chapter
2 Delineation of HSMs from smartcards and crypto devices
Hardware security module formats of today
Security requirements for hardware security modules
HSM design principles
Physical security mechanisms
Standards and norms for HSMs
Search for ‘hardware security modules’ in your browser. You find links to
The Wikipedia definition of hardware security modules
Manufacturer websites
Other definitions
A tip: don’t enter ‘HSM’ or you’ll end up with the High School Musical
movie!
Searching for the term ‘hardware security modules’ on the internet brings up
different manufacturer sites and numerous definitions. Unfortunately, many articles
out there still put HSMs on a par with chip cards, and compare them.
Here’s an example: ‘Hardware security modules (HSMs), like smartcards, are
hardware devices that are used to store cryptographic key material in a secure
way and to perform cryptographic operations’ (NetKnights, 2014). The comparison
isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t highlight the full capabilities of HSMs in terms of
computing speed and data-processing volume that we’re familiar with today in
modern data centers.
15