what is hsm
A hardware security module (HSM) is a physical computing device that safeguards and manages digital keys for strong authentication and provides cryptoprocessing.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.ypical HSM devices can perform about 50 to 1,000 1024-bit RSA operations/second. Some performance at longer key sizes is becoming increasingly important. To address this issue, some HSMs now support elliptic curve cryptography. Specialized HSM devices can reach numbers as high as +7,000 operations per second.