Misplaced Pages

#18981

58-501: The company was previously known as Thomson-CSF since its foundation in 1968. It was rebranded Thales (named after the Greek philosopher Thales [talɛs] pronounced as in French ) in 2000, after a communication audit highlighted Thomson-CSF's unfavorable public image, particularly among the young French graduates it sought to recruit. The new name was also meant to facilitate

116-759: A 50-50 joint venture with the global French defense contractor. The joint venture, based in South Korea , would be led by a CEO appointed by Samsung Electronics and will take over the entire defense business that Samsung Electronics has been conducting, which employed 697 people and generated sales of KRW 163.1 billion (US$ 134.5 million) the previous year. The new company would now market Samsung Electronics' defense communication equipment, satellite communication systems and terminals , fire control systems , radar guidance equipment including detection and tracking devices, and gunner's sights; and would begin overseas exports through Thomson's sales network. Samsung stated that

174-515: A billion US dollars) in fines after the courts heard that bribes had been paid to the Taiwanese government to win a large naval contract. Part (about 27%) of the responsibility was transferred to Thales Group because it held the legacy from Thomson-CSF . As of 2011, this is the largest corruption case in French history. Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in

232-543: A device must have, namely: On the other hand, device performance in a PKI environment is generally less important, in both online and offline operations, as Registration Authority procedures represent the performance bottleneck of the Infrastructure. Specialized HSMs are used in the payment card industry. HSMs support both general-purpose functions and specialized functions required to process transactions and comply with industry standards. They normally do not feature

290-474: A high level of debt. While it possessed a diversified portfolio of businesses, its market share within the majority of these many sectors was viewed as being too small to be realistically profitable despite increasing business from overseas buyers. During 1982, both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF were nationalised by France's Mitterrand government . As a consequence, Thomson-Brandt was renamed Thomson SA (Société Anonyme) and merged with Thomson-CSF. Throughout

348-470: A joint venture with the American defence company Raytheon . This arrangement was claimed to be first transatlantic joint venture in the defence sector. During December 2000, Thomson-CSF was officially rebranded as Thales (from the Greek philosopher Thales , pronounced [talɛs] reflecting its pronunciation in French ). Hardware security module A hardware security module ( HSM )

406-578: A major manufacturer of military equipment such as smokeless gunpowder and the Bushmaster IMV . In April 2006, Thales announced it would acquire Alcatel 's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio ) and Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division, in a deal which raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. The French government would also decrease its ownership in Thales to 27.1 percent from 31.3 percent as part of

464-416: A new entity, Alcatel Space ; this was jointly owned by Alcatel and Thomson-CSF. By June 1998, implementation of the finalised agreement had commenced. The majority of Thomson-CSF's capital was transferred into private ownership. The French State reduced its holding in the company from 58% to 40%. At the time, Thomson-CSF's principal private shareholders were Alcatel and Dassault Industries. The division of

522-587: A policy of privatisation of several state-owned companies, including Thomson-CSF. During April 1998, several of the affected companies, including Aérospatiale, Alcatel, Dassault Industries , Thomson-CSF and Thomson SA reached a cooperation agreement endorsed by the French government. Several of these terms brought about a major restructuring of Thomson-CSF. Firstly, the professional and defence electronics businesses of Alcatel and Dassault Électronique were merged with Thomson-CSF. Secondly, satellite businesses of Alcatel, Aerospatiale and Thomson-CSF are merged to form

580-772: A range of short-range missile systems such as the Starstreak surface-to-air missile or Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM). In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine , major arms manufacturers, including Thales, reported a sharp increase in interim sales and profits. The Thales ATM (Air Traffic Management) solution is marketed under the name "TopSky", previously named "EuroCat". Thales supplies avionics to civil aircraft manufacturers, including Fly-By-Wire systems, cockpit systems, navigation computers, satellite communication, inflight entertainment and electrical systems. The coordination of Thales parts' servicing and maintenance

638-533: A result of its takeover of Racal, the UK became Thomson-CSF's second-largest domestic industrial base after France. Racal was initially rebranded Thomson-CSF Racal plc . Shortly after the Racal acquisition, Thomson-CSF conducted a strategic review of its portfolio of businesses. It adopted a new organisational structure comprising three business areas: defence, aerospace and information technology . Management decided that

SECTION 10

#1732779566019

696-474: A significant shareholding in the merged company (approximately 40%). During the 1970s, Thomson-CSF received its first major contract in the Middle Eastern market. In this period the company diversified into several new sectors, leading to it manufacturing backend telephony equipment, semiconductors and medical imaging apparatus. By the early 1980s Thomson-CSF was in a weak financial position with

754-509: A standard API . Typical applications are transaction authorization and payment card personalization, requiring functions such as: The major organizations that produce and maintain standards for HSMs on the banking market are the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council , ANS X9 , and ISO . Performance-critical applications that have to use HTTPS ( SSL / TLS ), can benefit from

812-784: A subsidiary of Thales, and Dominique Monleau alleged that Thales has a centralised slush fund that it uses to bribe officials. On 30 May 2005 Schabir Shaik , the financial advisor to Jacob Zuma , the deputy president of the African National Congress party, was found guilty by the High Court in Durban of organising a bribe on behalf of Thomson-CSF . On 22 January 2020, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that both

870-645: Is a physical computing device that safeguards and manages secrets (most importantly digital keys ), performs encryption and decryption functions for digital signatures , strong authentication and other cryptographic functions. These modules traditionally come in the form of a plug-in card or an external device that attaches directly to a computer or network server . A hardware security module contains one or more secure cryptoprocessor chips . HSMs may have features that provide tamper evidence such as visible signs of tampering or logging and alerting, or tamper resistance which makes tampering difficult without making

928-406: Is coordinated by its MRO division; OEMServices , which handles the repair flow for component maintenance support. In November 2017, Thales acquired a UK radar provider called Aveillant which produces software-defined holographic radar technology, which can detect small targets such as drones. In February 2018, Thales won on a A$ 1.2 billion ($ 946 million) contract with Airservices Australia and

986-593: Is involved in the construction of both the Horizon and FREMM programs. Thales, as Thomson-CSF, was involved in the Taiwan frigates scandal , relating to the sale of La Fayette -class frigates to Taiwan. It is also present in Eurosam as Thomson-CSF was a founder of the consortium along with Aérospatiale and Alenia Aeronautica . In February 2004, Thales was awarded a contract for a new command and control system for

1044-1023: Is stated to be launched in 2023. In Turkey, the Thales team delivered the first High Speed Line in the country in 2009, and has completed more than 400 km (250 mi) of the Ankara Istanbul High Speed Line. Effective 31 May 2024, the ground transportation division was sold off to Hitachi Rail . The deal was made at $ 2.5 billion. Thales is also a major manufacturer of in-flight entertainment systems on board airliners. Thales' primary competitors in this area of business include Panasonic Avionics Corporation and Rockwell Collins . Thales also produces and installs ticketing and communications systems for public transportation via its ticketing and revenue collection division. In November 2016, Thales announced its intention to divest from its transport ticketing, revenue collection, road toll and car park management business. The company entered into negotiations with Paris-based Latour Capital, but

1102-475: Is used to sign large zonefiles . OpenDNSSEC is an open-source tool that manages signing DNS zone files . On January 27, 2007, ICANN and Verisign , with support from the U.S. Department of Commerce , started deploying DNSSEC for DNS root zones . Root signature details can be found on the Root DNSSEC's website. Blockchain technology depends on cryptographic operations. Safeguarding private keys

1160-526: The Australian Department of Defence to unify Australia's civil and military airspace under a single air traffic control system , named "OneSKY". Thales has major involvement in the UK rail industry as a result of the Racal merger and the 2006 acquisition of Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division and transport business. Thales is to modernize 40 per cent of London Tube network London Underground . In Denmark, Thales now owns 100% of

1218-517: The Italian defence group Finmeccanica and exchanging its medical imaging technology for General Electric 's consumer electronics businesses. In the latter decades of operation, it built itself into a multinational corporation . During 1989, it acquired Philips ' defence electronics business, Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V . In 1999, the company was privatised , but not before divesting its consumer electronics businesses. Shortly after, it took over

SECTION 20

#1732779566019

1276-434: The Italian defence group Finmeccanica . That same year, Thomson-CSF's medical imaging technology was exchanged with GE for GE's RCA and consumer electronics businesses. During the late 1980s, Thomson-CSF, anticipating future defence spending cutbacks and a downturn in its lucrative export contracts, initiated a restructuring of its businesses with the aim of maintaining its margins. A policy of proactive external growth

1334-668: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending the use of 2,048 bit RSA keys from year 2010, performance at longer key sizes has become more important. To address this issue, most HSMs now support elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which delivers stronger encryption with shorter key lengths. In PKI environments, the HSMs may be used by certification authorities (CAs) and registration authorities (RAs) to generate, store, and handle asymmetric key pairs. In these cases, there are some fundamental features

1392-557: The "East-west Consortium" contracted for a nationwide travel card (Danish: " Rejsekort "). In India, Thales was selected in December 2014 by the New Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to deliver a completely automatic fare collection system, as well as ticketing equipment. Thales has also been contracted by Hyderabad Metro Rail since 2017 to provide train control automation and communication services for

1450-464: The 1970s, it began manufacturing backend telephony equipment, semiconductors and medical imaging apparatus. It also entered into large deals outside of the domestic market, acquiring considerable business in the Middle East . During the late 1980s, Thomson-CSF, anticipating defence spending cutbacks, conducted a radical business restructuring, merging its semiconductor interests with those of

1508-403: The 1980s, the company's financial position improved dramatically as undertook a major reorganisation, focusing its efforts on the production of electronics for professional and defence customers. In 1983, it divested Thomson-CSF Téléphone , its civil telecommunications division, to telecommunications specialist Alcatel . Four years later, its semiconductor interests were merged with those of

1566-495: The 1990s, Thomson-CSF gained a controlling interest in Sextant Avionique , which was formed by the merger of the company's avionics business with that of French aircraft manufacturer Aérospatiale . The company also divested its interests in the French bank Crédit Lyonnais and semiconductor manufacturer SGSThomson . During the late 1990s, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin 's Plural Left government initiated

1624-731: The British defence electronics company Racal Electronics . In December 2000, Thomson-CSF was rebranded Thales Group . Thomson-CSF traces its origins to the formation of the American business Thomson-Houston Electric Company by Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston in 1879. On 15 April 1892, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged with its rival, the Edison General Electric Company , to form General Electric (GE). That same year,

1682-521: The Common Criteria system the highest EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level) is EAL7, most of the HSMs have EAL4+ certification. When used in financial payments applications, the security of an HSM is often validated against the HSM requirements defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council . A hardware security module can be employed in any application that uses digital keys. Typically,

1740-876: The EU-supported projects Thales participates in are: The company's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) . It is part of the AirTanker consortium, the winning bid for the RAF's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft . Thales UK won the contract for the British Army UAV programme, Watchkeeper . It also produces the SWARM remote weapon station . Thales simulators include full motion devices as well as flat panels and other training facilities. Thales Air Defence produces

1798-664: The French Navy, the SIC 21, that will be fitted on the Charles de Gaulle, many vessels and shore locations. Additionally, the initially planned French aircraft carrier PA2 involved Thales as the main designer of the ship. However, the project was cancelled in 2013. Thales is also working on X-ray imaging, finances, energy and operating commercial satellites. By 2012, the company is mainly composed of five branches: Defense, Security, Space, Aerospace and Ground transportation. Among

Thales Group - Misplaced Pages Continue

1856-447: The HSM inoperable, or tamper responsiveness such as deleting keys upon tamper detection. Each module contains one or more secure cryptoprocessor chips to prevent tampering and bus probing , or a combination of chips in a module that is protected by the tamper evident, tamper resistant, or tamper responsive packaging. A vast majority of existing HSMs are designed mainly to manage secret keys. Many HSM systems have means to securely back up

1914-487: The HSMs available in the market have the capability to execute specially developed modules within the HSM's secure enclosure. Such an ability is useful, for example, in cases where special algorithms or business logic has to be executed in a secured and controlled environment. The modules can be developed in native C language , .NET, Java , or other programming languages. Due to the critical role they play in securing applications and infrastructure, general purpose HSMs and/or

1972-527: The Thales Group and Zuma could be criminally tried for alleged illegal arms dealings which Thales was allowed to undergo in South Africa. Zuma is said to have allowed these illegal Thales arms dealings when he was the nation's deputy president and is also believed to have partaken in them as well. On 10 June 2011, Thales Group and the French government were ordered to pay 630 million euros (almost

2030-458: The UK (largely as a result of the Racal acquisition) has resulted in several high-profile contracts. Thales has offices in: As of June 2024, Thales' major shareholders are the French state (26.06%) and Dassault Aviation (26.05%). A High Court case decided in 2012 between Thales (supplier of Greater Manchester's tram management system) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TGM) considered

2088-647: The acquisition. The deal would also include the Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors). In January 2007, the 1.7 billion Euro deal ($ 2.24 billion) was approved. In 2008, Thales acquired British Hardware security module vendor nCipher. In December 2008, Alcatel agreed to sell a 20.8% stake in French engineering group Thales SA to Dassault Aviation SA for €1.57 billion ($ 2.27 billion). In 2014, Alcatel-Lucent initiated talks to sell its cybersecurity unit to Thales. The deal

2146-486: The company began exploring the possibility of merging with British defence specialist Marconi Electronic Systems . Its ambitions were foiled by the success of a rival bid by the defence and aerospace firm British Aerospace , which rebranded itself as BAE Systems shortly thereafter. Keen to expand its defence and technology business, Thomson-CSF announced the acquisition of the British defence electronics company Racal Electronics , which it purchased for £1.3 billion. As

2204-576: The company formed an overseas subsidiary, named Thomson Houston International , based in France. During 1893, Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was established as a partner to GE. CFTH's operations centered around the application of GE's patents in the growing electricity generation and transmission industry. The modern Thomson companies evolved from this company. During 1966, CFTH merged with armaments and vehicle manufacturer Hotchkiss-Brandt to form Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt , which

2262-399: The company ought to leverage its dual-purpose technology, marketing itself at particular civil markets that held strong parallels with its established defence and aerospace competencies, such as mobile telecommunications. Meanwhile, non-strategic assets were divested. Thomson-CSF also explored business opportunities further afield. In December 2000, it was announced that the company was forming

2320-542: The company's consumer electronics and defence businesses prior to privatisation brought about the creation of Thomson Multimedia , which was a distinct entity from Thomson-CSF. The independently-operating Thomson Multimedia has since been restructured and trades as Technicolor SA . Following its privatisation, Thomson-CSF continued to orient itself toward the defence electronics sector, establishing itself in overseas nations, including South Africa , Australia , South Korea and Singapore . Shortly after its privatisation,

2378-733: The company's worldwide expansion. Thales is partially owned by the French state and operates in more than 56 countries. In 2019 it had 80,000 employees and generated €18.4 billion in revenue. As of 2017, it was the 8th largest defence contractor in the world with 55% of its total sales from military work. Patrice Caine was appointed chairman and CEO in December 2014. The firm began as Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), established in 1893. In 1968 Thomson-Brandt (a renamed CFTH) merged its electronics arm with that of Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF) to form Thomson-CSF , which changed its name to Thales in December 2000. In October 1999, Samsung Electronics announced

Thales Group - Misplaced Pages Continue

2436-565: The competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) , and the company now participates in an alliance company with BAE Systems and the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence . Thales Navigation, a division that produced satellite navigation units, was sold to private equity group Shah Capital Partners in 2006 for $ 170 million and renamed Magellan . In 2006, Thales acquired Australian Defence Industries ,

2494-433: The cryptographic modules are typically certified according to internationally recognized standards such as Common Criteria (e.g. using Protection Profile EN 419 221-5, "Cryptographic Module for Trust Services") or FIPS 140 (currently the 3rd version, often referred to as FIPS 140-3). Although the highest level of FIPS 140 security certification attainable is Security Level 4, most of the HSMs have Level 3 certification. In

2552-648: The development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt with the Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil ( General Wireless Telegraphy Company , commonly abbreviated as CSF ), these two companies being the source of the name Thomson-CSF . It operated as an electronics specialist on products such as broadcasting equipment, electroacoustics , shortwave radio sets, radar systems and television . During

2610-505: The joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN to offer a total "bottom up" shipbuilding capability. Also in 2002, Thales Broadcast Multimedia, a former subsidiary of Thales, provided China with standard short-wave radio-broadcasting equipment designed for general public radio broadcasting . Though the contract was not for this purpose, it later appeared that China used these ALLISS antennas for jamming foreign radio broadcasts to China. In 2003, Thales UK's design won

2668-491: The keys they handle outside of the HSM. Keys may be backed up in wrapped form and stored on a computer disk or other media, or externally using a secure portable device like a smartcard or some other security token . HSMs are used for real time authorization and authentication in critical infrastructure thus are typically engineered to support standard high availability models including clustering , automated failover , and redundant field-replaceable components . A few of

2726-637: The keys would be of high value - meaning there would be a significant, negative impact to the owner of the key if it were compromised. The functions of an HSM are: HSMs are also deployed to manage transparent data encryption keys for databases and keys for storage devices such as disk or tape . Some HSM systems are also hardware cryptographic accelerators . They usually cannot beat the performance of hardware-only solutions for symmetric key operations. However, with performance ranges from 1 to 10,000 1024-bit RSA signatures per second, HSMs can provide significant CPU offload for asymmetric key operations. Since

2784-458: The metro in Hyderabad . In 2014, the company was tasked with equipping the public transport system of Bordeaux , France, with a contactless ticketing and revenue collection system, to be installed by February 2017. However, due to delays, the system is not expected to be operational until 2019. In Singapore, Thales was involved in a train collision resulting from a compatibility issue between

2842-415: The negotiations ended in 2017 after Latour Capital announced this business was "not aligned closely enough with its investment priorities." After subsequent talks with Chinese investors failed, Thales abandoned the divestment. Thales' international subsidiaries generated 52% of the company's revenue in 2008, with Thales UK being the largest of these accounting for 13% of group revenue. Its large presence in

2900-621: The old signalling system's interface, and the new one. The accident resulted in 38 minor injuries. A similar incident would occur in March 2019 in Hong Kong on the Tsuen Wan line . In Vietnam, the company was awarded a €265 million contract in 2017 to deliver the telecommunications system for the currently constructed Line 3 of the Hanoi metro. Running behind schedule by one year, the metro line

2958-468: The operation of an audit clause in a contract, and the extent to which a supplier must comply with this. Thales had submitted claims for increased costs and for extensions to the time allowed for delivery of the system. TGM made various requests for documents intended to better help assess their claims. The Court instructed Thales to supply the requested documents. Although the ticketing system in Bordeaux

SECTION 50

#1732779566019

3016-427: The two parent companies also intended to combine their respective areas of competitive advantage to jointly develop and sell next-generation products. In June 2001, Thales formed ThalesRaytheonSystems , an equal-ownership joint venture with Raytheon combining their radar and communication systems divisions. It was restructured in 2016 to sell exclusively to NATO agencies and member states. In 2002, Thales set up

3074-448: The use of an SSL Acceleration HSM by moving the RSA operations, which typically requires several large integer multiplications, from the host CPU to the HSM device. Typical HSM devices can perform about 1 to 10,000 1024-bit RSA operations/second. Some performance at longer key sizes is becoming increasingly important. An increasing number of registries use HSMs to store the key material that

3132-457: Was adopted, focusing on the European market. Between 1976 and 1987, the company's non-French subsidiaries' share of consolidated revenues rose from 5% to 25%. During 1988, a new division, Thomson Consumer Electronics was formed. In 1995, this division was rebranded as Thomson Multimedia . During 1989, it acquired Philips ' defence electronics business, Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. During

3190-606: Was completed in December 2023. Thales Group supplies electronic devices and equipment used by the French Armed Forces from its past as Thomson-CSF, including the SPECTRA helmet for the army and the gendarmerie . It has worked with Dassault Aviation on the Dassault Rafale aircraft and made its SPECTRA defensive aids. Thales often worked with DCNS and designed the electronics used on French ships, and it

3248-460: Was originally due for launch in the summer of 2017, multiple delays pushed the new launch date back by 20 months to 2019. The project's many setbacks are considered to reflect negatively on the city's reputation, with Bordeaux's city's mayor and former French prime minister Alain Juppé , calling Thales' inability to meet its commitments "unacceptable behaviour." Michel Josserand, former head of THEC,

3306-553: Was signed in October of that year. In 2016, Thales acquired Vormetric , a data security company, for $ 400M. In 2017, it acquired Guavus and bid €4.76B for digital security company Gemalto . In 2018, Thales committed to divesting nCipher as a condition for its acquisition of Gemalto; in June 2019 it divested nCipher to Entrust . In 2023, Thales acquired cybersecurity company, Imperva , from Thoma Bravo for $ 3.6B. The acquisition

3364-438: Was subsequently renamed Thomson-Brandt . Two years later, the electronics business of Thomson-Brandt merged with Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil ( General Wireless Telegraphy Company , commonly abbreviated as CSF ) to form Thomson-CSF . Prior to the merger, CSF had operated as a pioneer in the fields of broadcasting , electroacoustics , shortwave radio , radar systems and television . Thomson Brandt maintained

#18981