Thales encourages organizations to reimagine authentication as both a security and user-experience capability, not a trade-off between the two.

Key points from the Thales guidance on authentication technologies and methods:

• Adopt higher Authentication Assurance Levels (AALs) – Moving to methods with a higher AAL (for example, strong multi-factor authentication instead of passwords alone) can significantly reduce the risk of attacks while keeping the login process simple.
• Use “stronger authentication” methods – Combining factors (something you know, have, and are) and modern mechanisms (such as hardware-backed credentials or secure tokens) helps mitigate common attack classes like credential theft and phishing.
• Design for low friction – Thales emphasizes that authentication solutions need to be frictionless. That means using context-aware policies, step-up authentication only when risk is high, and methods that feel natural to users.
• Take a strategic view – Understanding the different authentication technologies, mechanisms, and attack classes gives security teams more confidence in their overall authentication strategy, rather than relying on ad-hoc controls.

Thales provides a Comprehensive Guide to Authentication Technologies and Methods and a Strong Authentication Technology Survey to help you assess your current approach and identify practical improvements. You can also engage an Access Management Specialist to align stronger authentication with your user experience goals.

Thales offers a set of research reports and guides that help security and business leaders reshape their security roadmap using current data and trends:

• 2026 Thales Data Threat Report – Described as an essential guide to global data security trends, emerging technology risks, and actionable insights to strengthen enterprise-wide defenses and support strategic security collaboration.
• 2025 Thales Data Threat Report – Financial Services Edition – Focused on the specific security challenges in financial services and strategies for protecting data in complex financial environments.
• 2026 Thales Digital Trust Index – A comprehensive study for IT security leaders on how digital experiences affect trust across consumers, partners, and employees, helping you connect security decisions with trust and user experience.
• Unstructured Data & AI Security Risks insight – Thales highlights that while 75% of organizations feel confident in their data security, 68% admit much of their unstructured data remains unprotected. This gap points to underinvestment and blind spots in data protection strategies.
• Gartner 2025 Market Guide for Data Security Platforms (available via Thales) – Explains how combining data security controls with fine-grained authorization can lead to more efficient data security.
• 2025 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass: API Security Management – Offers insights into API discovery, runtime protection, and the changing API security landscape, including AI-driven threats and zero-trust models.

Together, these resources help you:

• Benchmark your posture against global trends.
• Prioritize investments in areas like unstructured data, APIs, and AI-driven risk.
• Align security initiatives with digital trust and business outcomes.

Thales also provides guidance on AI runtime security for agentic AI and LLM-powered applications, helping you secure new AI use cases as they move into production.

Thales positions itself as a partner to help organizations rethink how they protect data, manage compliance, and license software across complex environments.

1. Data protection and compliance

Thales helps protect and secure access to your most sensitive data and software wherever it is created, shared, or stored, including cloud and hybrid environments. Their resources and solutions are aligned with a wide range of regulatory and industry requirements, such as:

• New York State Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies
• Hong Kong Cloud Computing Security Practice Guide, Secure Tertiary Data Backup (STDB) Guideline, and Virtual Asset Trading Platforms Operators Guideline
• India’s Framework for Adoption of Cloud Services by SEBI
• Korea’s Personal Information and Information Security Management System (ISMS-P)

They also highlight that many data breach notification laws include a “safe harbor” clause, making strong data protection a practical way to mitigate the impact of incidents.

2. Risk management with HSMs and post-quantum readiness

• Security architects are increasingly using integrated Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) as part of comprehensive information risk management strategies, both to reduce risk and create competitive advantage.
• Thales stresses that although post-quantum computing is projected to be a few years away, enterprises should start planning now. A free risk assessment is available to help determine if your organization is at risk of a post-quantum breach.

3. Software licensing and entitlement management

Thales provides practical guidance to help you get software licensing right the first time:

• “How to Get Software Licensing Right the First Time” – A guide to licensing, delivering, and protecting software with strategies that consider people, processes, and technology.
• Software Licensing & Entitlement Management Buyer’s Guide – Covers key criteria, evaluation questions, and best practices for choosing a platform that supports scale, security, and growth.

4. Partner ecosystem and go-to-market support

The Thales Accelerate Partner Network and broader partner ecosystem are designed to help partners and customers:

• Access skills and expertise to secure business with Thales technologies.
• Differentiate their offerings and provide more value to customers using Thales solutions.
• Mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches while supporting digital transformation initiatives.

Across these areas, Thales offers ongoing resources, including newsletters you can subscribe to, so your teams stay current on data protection, access management, and licensing best practices.