On August 4, 2026, Thales officially launched Luna 8, a new generation of hardware security modules (HSMs) designed to help organizations prepare for the era of quantum computing and the growing demands artificial intelligence places on cryptographic infrastructure.
According to this year’s Thales Data Threat Report, organizations most frequently cite “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” (HNDL) attacks as their top risk — a scenario in which attackers collect encrypted data today with the intention of decrypting it once a sufficiently powerful quantum computer becomes available. The report found that 59% of companies are already testing and evaluating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms to prepare for this threat. Thales’s new product aims to close the gap between this “readiness” and actual deployment.
Luna 8 is built on a cryptographic processor designed in-house by Thales and is used to securely store, protect, and manage cryptographic keys.
Its key features include:
- Quantum readiness – the module protects the keys underpinning critical enterprise services such as PKI, certificate management, authentication, digital signing, and digital identities, while offering a smooth transition to post-quantum algorithms without disrupting existing investments.
- Performance – according to the manufacturer, it delivers significantly faster cryptographic operations compared to previous generations.
- Scalability – it can be deployed anywhere from smaller enterprise environments to hyperscale environments with rapidly growing workloads.
- Future-proofing – its upgradeable architecture makes it easy to add new algorithms and standards.
- Portability – existing Thales customers can migrate to Luna 8 without any changes to their applications, since the module uses the same interfaces and peripherals as previous solutions.
- Flexibility – Luna 8 runs on a single hardware appliance that supports multiple cryptographic applications. The platform is also planned to add support for payShield 11K in the future, extending it into payment HSMs that protect transactions, PINs, and sensitive keys for banks and payment providers.
Luna 8 is the first product on Thales’s new HSM platform, available as a network HSM. It is currently undergoing independent assessment against some of the industry’s strictest security standards — FIPS 140-3 Level 3 and EU Common Criteria.
Luna 8 builds on Thales’s decades of experience in hardware security modules and responds to two parallel trends — the growing adoption of AI and the approaching need to transition to quantum-resistant cryptography. It gives organizations a way to begin real-world PQC deployment without having to rebuild their existing security infrastructure from the ground up.
Source: Thales Newsroom
