Gemalto has launched a security solution designed to protect the smart energy sector ecosystem. According to the company, its technology can be deployed by smart meter makers and distribution systems operators, and provides seamless connectivity, secure digital identities and security lifecycle management for the life of a smart meter. The solution protects connected energy assets and the data they exchange, allowing people and businesses to trust the expanding smart grid. "Today's highly successful smart grids have become comprehensive IoT networks with millions of connected meters that share massive real time data about people, businesses and energy consumption," says the company. "The valuable insight they provide enables consumers to save on energy bills and utilities and energy players to better balance supply and demand. It is also crucial information to help integrate renewable energy sources, helping to improve sustainability. As the marketplace and number of connections continues to expand by an estimated 30% each year, so does the cyberattack surface. The motivations for hacking this critical infrastructure are high and diverse: energy consumption fraud, insight into households' activity and absence, grid instability, pressure on governments, ID theft. Digital security is paramount to an efficient grid´s success."Gemalto says its cybersecurity solution for electric utilities establishes a foundation of trust at the very core of the ecosystem by establishing end-to-end security between energy meters, data concentrators and energy companies' back-end systems. It adds: "A strong and unique digital identity system is implemented at the manufacturing stage to ensure devices and applications can strongly authenticate themselves, proving their legitimacy to access sensitive data. Leading-edge encryption technology safeguards against data tampering and strong security lifecycle management enables remote security and data access updates, without costly truck rolls.""The smart energy ecosystem is one of the most advanced in terms of security requirements because of the potentially disastrous consequences of malicious hacking," said Guillaume Lafaix, senior vice president Mobile Services and IoT, Gemalto. "The Gemalto cybersecurity solution for Utilities ensures the integrity and confidentiality of smart meter data while defending against hacking and emerging threats that are typical to this business."
Gemalto unveils tech for smart energy
