KORE is collaborating with Kigen and Energy Web to provide an integrated, eSIM-based, trusted identity system for smart-grid applications.

IoT firm KORE, based in Georgia in the USA, is working with Kigen, an Irish pioneer of IoT technology, and Energy Web, a Swiss non-profit focused on building operating systems for energy grids. The collaboration aims to provides secure and global connectivity for smart-grid applications, designed with eSIM and Open IoT Safe technology.

KORE’s OmniSIM, powered by eSIM and multi-IMSI technology, is enabling users such as Energy Web with resilient, future-proof connectivity. As IoT accelerates, there is an increasing concern of security risk because every new device connected to the internet represents a security risk or point of vulnerability.

IoT Safe offers a robust, scalable and standardised technology to protect IoT data communications on the actual SIM, enabling IoT connectivity. The standard represents a start towards easing this journey, with additional capabilities required for those that leverage data insights from IoT. Kigen’s feature set that makes it more accessible to all stakeholders is called Open IoT Safe.

“KORE has long supported security by design and securing IoT from the ground up,” said Romil Bahl, KORE’s CEO. “We are thrilled to be able to support this innovative initiative that brings IoT security to the forefront and doesn’t pass along the full brunt of security downstream. High-value collaborations like those with Kigen and Energy Web enable our IoT security initiatives.”

This collaboration leverages the features of eSIM and Open IoT Safe to act as a hardware wallet anchored to an open-source, publicly accessible blockchain, powered by Energy Web. Using Energy Web’s technology, organisations can build their own applications via an open-source technology stack that is focused directly on the transition to renewable energy. A purpose-built SDK designed by Energy Web was used as part of the development process.

The ability to provide trustworthy information to third-party IoT providers via eSIM, which builds in device-level security and can authenticate data for a user’s cloud service, securely communicating data at the packet level, is a leap forward in creating end-to-end security within the IoT ecosystem. This collaboration allows one of the world’s largest ecosystems to ensure that IoT data are trusted and secure.

“Secure storage of credentials such as device identities is vital for delivering connected services, and the resulting data must be trustworthy,” said Vincent Korstanje, CEO at Kigen. “We’re pleased that this collaboration allows this by combining KORE’s strength in eSIM connectivity and Energy Web’s decentralised technology to move the world towards a zero-carbon economy.”

The energy marketplace pioneered by Energy Web is an example of digital transformation underway in many sectors, where data from massive IoT can be a difference maker.