VIA Padlock to enhance security

VIA Technologies on August 31 released its VIA PadLock Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP), a software module that enables the Microsoft Cryptographic Application Programming Interface (CryptoAPI)—used by programmers to enhance security in applications—to offload much of the security heavy-lifting to the VIA PadLock Security Engine integrated directly into VIA C7 family processors.

The VIA PadLock CSP helps build that protection by enabling developers using the Microsoft CryptoAPI in their applications to benefit from the military-grade security tools of the VIA PadLock Security Engine with little program modification, according to VIA. By leveraging the cryptographic strength and power of these tools, the VIA PadLock accelerates AES ciphers by over fifty times, SHA secure hashes by seven times, and public key generation by up to two times, enabling real-time protection of information with extremely low processor utilization, said the company.