Quantum-Safe eSIM for Utilities
Goals
Future quantum computing will compromise the current cryptography used in Internet communications, including digital certificates, digital signatures, and communications encryption.
In this context, one of the most sensitive sectors is that of utilities, where both the control of gas/water/electricity meters and actuators, as well as the consumption data they send through mobile networks, must be protected.
The objective of this project has been to test Quantum-Safe technologies to protect both the remote provisioning of eSIM cards for meters and the communications that these meters use to send their measurements.
Results
An eSIM architecture based on the SGP.32 standard has been implemented with IDEMIA, where ‘Quantum-Safe’ algorithms have been used both for the digital certificates that identify the operator and for signing the eSIM profile that is remotely provisioned in the utility meters. This way, it is not possible to impersonate the operator or alter the content of the eSIM profiles by means of quantum computing, thus protecting the utility from an attack that could control its meters or remote actuators.
Additionally, this eSIM profile contains cryptographic libraries that update the meter’s operating system, so that when sending measurement data to the utility company, it encrypts it with a post-quantum TLS protocol, thus protecting privacy. Both functionalities have been tested on Telefónica España’s commercial network, using a commercial IoT device.