ACS, part of the JSE-listed Altron Group, today announced that it had entered a co-distribution partnership with CONDYN to expand the current sub-Saharan Africa market footprint of Thales encryption devices.The partnership comes about as a result of the increasing threat of information security breaches faced by organisations on a daily basis, non-more so than in the financial services sector where the protection of data when switching information between POS devices at vendors and banks is most critical.This partnership will enable CONDYN to include, and ACS to expand, the current footprint of Thales cryptographic solutions for protecting big data, public key infrastructures (PKIs), cloud and mobile payments.While the Thales crypto solution, payShield, is used successfully in the protection of switching transactions between POS devices at vendors and banks, the partnership with CONDYN will focus on nShield, a PKI-based device that is used as a general purpose encryption solution for encryption of data at flight and at rest, including file & folder, and email and database encryption in the general purpose transaction switching market.CONDYN, which has more than 21 years experience in the provision of information security solutions, was seen as a perfect fit when ACS started looking at companies that it could partner with to enter the general purpose encryption market, says Herman Kriel, General Manager: Crypto Services at ACS.This is supported by Jorina van Rensburg, Chief Executive Officer at CONDYN, who had the following to say: Not only does CONDYN as an organisation have the experience of a seasoned distributor of information security solutions, but we were also able to identify a good opportunity to culminate hardware encryption with other security solutions that are implemented through our partner organisations worldwide. This is backed by our experienced staff who provide professional assessments and services to customers, both existing and new.Commenting on locally produced solutions meeting global standards, Van Rensburg had the following to say: The thing that people have to understand is that IT is global and the moment you go onto the Internet, you become part of the global community. So, even though a security solution might be developed locally, it must be in line with global trends. This partnership builds on our current security solutions of secure access control; network, endpoint and messaging security; cloud services; compliance monitoring; and professional services with management & reporting; by enabling the implementation of an all-round security solution to protect customer data, whether at rest or in motion.