BCSS vs. Custom Code

BCSS lets you focus your resources on what makes you unique. The Bank Card Security System is the cost-effective alternative to software development required to build key management from scratch, and replicate compliance requirements for the generation and authorization of security codes and PINs. Leading secure card issuers and personalization bureaus use BCSS to save time and resources that they can devote to systems and processes that give them a competitive advantage.

BCSS eliminates time-consuming tasks such as learning new technologies and developing software systems that meet logical security requirements established by the network brands - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB. Customers rely on BCSS to keep them current with the latest logical security mandates such as the use of hardware cryptography for key management.

BCSS was designed to be incorporated into your card issuing platform, allowing you to select the functionality you need to meet the network brands' requirements for logical security. BCSS includes more than 100 subroutines that you can use to reduce the effort to implement a secure card platform.

BCSS eliminates all the programming required to make hardware security modules (HSMs) work in accordance with requirements established by the network brands for security code creation, and key management. To incorporate an HSM into your secure card issuing or personalization solution is no trivial undertaking. It requires a variety of internal expertise, and programming resource to keep a key management system in compliance.

With BCSS, there is no need to learn a proprietary machine level language to deploy Thales HSM capabilities. Plus you no longer need to constantly upgrade your custom code to take advantage of new functionality in the Thales HSM firmware.

Using BCSS saves time and money throughout the lifecycle of your secure card platform. As your issuing and authorization environments expand to include EMV requirements, BCSS is already enabled with the necessarily more complex key management functionality. Key profiles with both key values and key attributes, derived keys, key versioning, and signed certificates are all readily understood.

• A library of subroutines handles more than 100 functions that access the BCSS database and the Thales HSMs.
• Subroutines streamline calls to the Thales HSM to create and verify security codes.
• BCSS builds the host commands necessary for the Thales HSM to create encrypted keys. It also manages Ethernet (TCP/IP) communication and stores a database of encrypted keys created by the Thales HSM.
• Subroutines can be called from popular programming languages such as COBOL and C.
• A user-friendly Card Utility program for Windows and UNIX eliminates the need for most common programming tasks.
• BCSS provides a debug trace of communications with Thales HSMs.
• BCSS supports the Thales Security Resource Manager (SRM) for load-balancing multiple HSMs.
• BCSS supports CICS and TSO environments on the IBM mainframe.
• BCSS multi-threads job production files to a single HSM
• BCSS manages multiple HSM's to balance cryptographic load

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