Trust Services") or FIPS 140 (currently the 3rd version, often referred to as FIPS 140-3) to provide users with independent assurance that the design and implementation of the product and cryptographic algorithms are sound. Although the highest level of FIPS 140 security certification attainable is Security Level 4, most of the HSMs have Level 3 certification. In 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. Uses A hardware security module can be employed in any application that uses digital keys. Typically 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: onboard secure cryptographic key generation onboard secure cryptographic key storage, at least for the top level and most sensitive keys, which are often called master keys key management use of cryptographic and sensitive data material, for example, performing decryption or digital signature functions offloading application servers for complete asymmetric and symmetric cryptography. HSMs are also deployed to manage transparent data encryption keys for databases and keys for storage devices such as disk or tape. HSMs provide both logical and physical protection of these materials, including cryptographic keys, from disclosure, non-authorized use, and potential adversaries. HSMs support both symmetric and asymmetric (public-key) cryptography. For some applications, such as certificate authorities and digital signing, the cryptographic material is asymmetric key pairs (and certificates) used in public-key cryptography. With other applications, such as data encryption or financial payment systems, the cryptographic material consists mainly of symmetric keys. 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 signs per second, HSMs can provide significant CPU offload for asymmetric key operations. Since 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. PKI environment (CA HSMs) In PKI environments, the HSMs may be