Press Releases

Prime Factors and Thales renew partnership

Eugene, OR – January 28, 2009 – Prime Factors and Thales have renewed their strategic relationship which includes product information exchange, joint marketing and a reseller agreement that allows Prime Factors to sell Thales Host Security Modules (HSMs).

Prime Factors develops the Bank Card Security System (BCSS), which is designed to work with the Thales HSM 8000 to meet stringent security requirements established by Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Leading secure personalization bureaus use BCSS and the Thales HSM 8000 to create secure financial transaction cards (credit, debit, prepaid and gift).

The agreement with Thales gives Prime Factors the right to sell the Thales HSM 8000 hardware encryption device in North America. The Thales HSM 8000 is the only HSM that BCSS supports and is strategic to the success of BCSS.

"We have had a long standing relationship with Thales since 1992 when Thales and Prime Factors worked jointly on a project for Royal Bank of Canada", said Prime Factors' President Patrick Walker. "Since then we have tested hardware from other HSM vendors, but have found Thales HSM to provide the functionality needed critical to our customers' success and we are very happy to work exclusively with Thales over the last 17 years."

"This partnership allows us to collaborate and have access to information on Thales HSM 8000 so that we can embed and support the HSM functionality within BCSS. We recently released BCSS version 3.0, which supports Thales's new firmware release 3.0 functionality that provides data preparation for contactless cards and EMV-based cards. The two products now work together in the process to create contactless cards and EMV-based cards."

BCSS builds host commands necessary for the Thales HSM 8000 to create encrypted keys, manage Ethernet (TCP/IP) communication and store a database of encrypted keys created by the Thales HSM 8000. The products also work together to deliver important key management functionality that includes key generation, key distribution, key loading, key storage and key usage.

The agreement includes joint marketing activities that target secure personalization bureaus and companies that create secure credit, debit, prepaid and gift cards.

About Prime Factors Prime Factors, Inc. develops enterprise encryption and key management software that reduces risk and helps companies achieve their security goals. We specialize in: 1) protecting data at rest in a flexible way; 2) protecting data exchanged with trading partners; 3) meeting stringent requirements for secure personalization established by Visa, MasterCard, Discovery and American Express. Our software is cross-platform compatible and reflects knowledge gained since 1981 when Prime Factors was founded. Prime Factor's Bank Card Security System saves time and money by reducing the amount of custom programming required to meet security standards established by Visa, MasterCard and others. www.primefactors.com.

Press Contacts:

Lawson Abinanti Prime Factors, Inc. 425-688-0104 labinan@attglobal.net

Kimberly Krautter Virtual Magic 404-229-1073 kkrautter@virtualmagic.com

About Thalas Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of €12.3 billion.

Press Contacts:

Liz Harris Thales +44(0)1223 723612 liz.harris@thales-esecurity.com

Kristin Amico Schwartz Communications 415-512-0770 thales@schwartz-pr.com

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