Embedded systems have to increasingly support cryptographic primitives such as authentication and cyphering. Speed was considered for many years the main design target. But today, energy and security against physical attacks are essential constraints in many embedded applications. Software implementations are flexible but they can fairly easily leak secret data. This talk will show how hardware acceleration can assist programmers in designing more secure cryptosystems. It will introduce general principles and provide some examples in physical attacks and hardware protections or countermeasures using simple applications in asymmetric cryptography.