Thales launches Luna 8 as AI and quantum computing put cryptography under pressure - Biometric Update

Thales launches Luna 8 as AI and quantum computing put cryptography under pressure Sep 18, 2026, 4:38 am EDT | Ashok Singal Categories Biometric R&D | Biometrics News Thales has launched Luna 8, its next-generation hardware security module (HSM), as enterprises confront two forces putting new pressure on their cryptographic infrastructure: the rapid adoption of AI today and the prospect that quantum computers could eventually break widely used public-key cryptography. Available now as a network appliance, Luna 8 is designed to securely generate, protect and manage cryptographic keys while supporting both existing and post-quantum algorithms. Its upgradeable architecture is intended to let organizations migrate toward post-quantum cryptography without replacing applications and infrastructure all at once. Why now: two threats, two different clocks AI is creating an immediate cryptographic challenge against an already difficult data-security backdrop. Thales’s 2026 Data Threat Report found that only 34 percent of organizations know where all their data resides, while 47 percent of sensitive cloud data remains unencrypted. AI applications and agents are now gaining broader and more automated access to that information — and attackers are following them. Sixty-one percent of organizations have seen their AI applications targeted, with sensitive data the leading target. Credential theft and misappropriated secrets also remain the leading attack technique against cloud infrastructure. As AI expands across enterprise systems, organizations therefore have more sensitive data, credentials and cryptographic secrets exposed to automated access and attack. That puts greater pressure on the cryptographic layer: encrypting sensitive data, protecting the keys behind that encryption, and securing the credentials and secrets that AI-driven systems increasingly depend on. Quantum computing creates a different problem. A sufficiently capable quantum computer could eventually undermine public-key algorithms that organizations currently rely on to protect encrypted information, authenticate systems and create digital signatures. That machine does not need to exist today for organizations to have a problem today. In a “harvest now, decrypt later” attack, an adversary can collect encrypted information now and store it until future computing capabilities make decryption possible. Data with a long useful life — identity records, financial information, government records or other sensitive personal information — can therefore have a security lifetime extending beyond the cryptography protecting it. Digital signatures create another concern. Public-key cryptography does more than keep information secret; it also helps establish who signed something and whether it has been altered. Long-lived credentials and documents relying on vulnerable algorithms could eventually require new mechanisms to preserve that trust. That makes post-quantum migration a current infrastructure problem rather than something organizations can necessarily postpone until a cryptographically relevant quantum computer arrives. The common thread AI and quantum computing create different risks, but both are increasing the importance of the cryptographic infrastructure underneath digital systems. AI is giving automated systems greater access to sensitive enterprise data while increasing the amount of data, credentials and secrets organizations need to protect. Quantum computing threatens the durability of the algorithms organizations depend on to protect that data and establish trust. That helps explain why Thales is putting AI and post-quantum computing in the same conversation around Luna 8. The HSM protects the cryptographic keys behind encryption, authentication, digital signatures and identities today, while allowing organizations to transition those systems toward post-quantum algorithms. The urgency on the quantum side is already showing up in enterprise planning. According to the 2026 Thales Data Threat Report, 61 percent of organizations cited harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks as their top quantum concern, while 59 percent said they were already prototyping and evaluating post-quantum cryptography algorithms. “The risks that quantum computing poses to encryption standards are unprecedented,” said Todd Moore, VP of Data Security Products at Thales. “Enterprises need to build post-quantum readiness through cryptographic agility.” That last phrase — cryptographic agility — is important. Organizations do not know exactly how standards, threats and implementation requirements will evolve over the lifetime of infrastructure being purchased today. Luna 8 is therefore designed to support current and post-quantum algorithms while allowing new algorithms, standards and capabilities to be introduced through its upgradeable architecture. For existing Luna customers, Thales is also emphasizing migration without application changes: Luna 8 uses the same interfaces and ancillaries as existing deployments. Future releases are expected to support payShield 11K, extending the architecture toward payment HSM functions protecting transactions, PINs and keys used by banks and payment providers. Not the only player Thales isn’t alone in the race to prepare HSMs for the post-quantum transition. Competitors including Entrust, Utimaco and Crypto4A are also developing or shipping HSM technology with support for post-quantum cryptography. That means support for the new algorithms alone is unlikely to be enough to differentiate HSM vendors as the market matures. The competitive question is increasingly how organizations can introduce post-quantum cryptography into systems already running in production — how much hardware, software and application change is required, how easily algorithms can be replaced, and how disruptive the migration will be. “Integration, automation and scalability are increasingly important considerations for organizations modernizing their cryptographic infrastructure,” said Michela Menting, Vice President of Research at ABI Research. “Luna 8 combines support for post-quantum cryptography with the flexibility organizations need to adapt as security requirements constantly evolve.” That is where Thales is positioning Luna 8. Existing Luna customers can migrate using the same interfaces and ancillaries without changing their current applications, while the upgradeable architecture allows new algorithms and standards to be introduced over time. Thales is also emphasizing performance. The company says its custom-designed cryptographic processor delivers cryptographic operations orders of magnitude faster than its predecessor, while its multi-tenant architecture allows multiple secure environments to operate on the same hardware. Luna 8 is currently undergoing independent assessment against security standards including FIPS 140-3 Level 3 and EU Common Criteria. What it means for the industry A quantum-safe HSM is one piece of the puzzle, not the whole answer. Entrust’s 2026 Global State of Post-Quantum and Cryptographic Security Trends report found that one of the biggest barriers to migration is organizations’ difficulty discovering and inventorying their own cryptographic assets. Legacy systems, signing infrastructure and vendor integrations can still depend on older cryptography that isn’t fully mapped, and installing a new HSM doesn’t solve that discovery problem. Nor does it automatically make every application quantum-safe. Organizations still need to identify where vulnerable cryptography is used and migrate the applications, certificates, protocols and signatures that depend on it. PQC-capable HSMs such as Luna 8 provide the protected infrastructure for new algorithms, but they are one component of a broader migration. The same distinction applies to AI. An HSM can protect the encryption keys, credentials and cryptographic secrets used by AI applications and agents, but it cannot determine what those systems should be allowed to access or discover sensitive data an organization doesn’t know it has. The immediate takeaway is therefore partly about procurement. Organizations may not need to replace every HSM today, but when refreshing HSMs, PKI, identity systems, payments infrastructure or other cryptographic technology, PQC support and crypto-agility should increasingly be part of the requirements. At the same time, organizations need to inventory their existing cryptography and data so they know what eventually needs to migrate. Luna 8 gives organizations another piece of that infrastructure. Whether they are actually ready for AI and quantum-era security will depend on what surrounds it.

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