Digital Identity for Critical Infrastructure Access

Automate contractor and employee access provisioning with self-verifying credentials. When a new hire is added to the corporate HR system, a verifiable credential is issued to their digital wallet, granting immediate, role-based access to sites and systems. This reduces the onboarding timeline from weeks to minutes and eliminates the security risk of forgotten accounts when personnel leave.

• Example: A major utility reduced contractor onboarding from 14 days to 2 hours, saving an estimated $1.2M annually in administrative labor.

Every access event—from entering a substation to logging into a SCADA system—is recorded as an immutable, time-stamped transaction on a permissioned ledger. This creates a perfect, real-time audit trail for regulators (e.g., NERC CIP, TSA directives).

• Automated Reporting: Generate compliance reports in seconds, not weeks.
• Tamper-Proof Evidence: Provides undeniable proof of who accessed what, and when, for incident investigations.
• Cost Avoidance: Mitigates risk of multi-million dollar fines for compliance failures.

Replace easily lost, stolen, or forged physical badges with cryptographically secure digital credentials on employee smartphones. This drastically reduces the costs associated with badge replacement, physical readers, and fraud investigations.

• Key Benefit: A single digital identity can govern access to multiple facilities, networks, and equipment lockouts.
• Real-World Impact: An oil & gas operator reported a 70% reduction in badge-related security incidents and associated investigation costs post-implementation.

Securely extend temporary, fine-grained access to external partners, first responders, or auditors without creating permanent accounts in your internal systems. Issue time-bound, attribute-based credentials that expire automatically.

• Use Case: Grant a fire department emergency read-only access to facility schematics for a specific 24-hour period.
• Business Value: Enables faster, safer collaboration while maintaining the principle of least privilege, reducing the attack surface from third parties.

Verify the credentials and certifications of vendors and their personnel in real-time. A blockchain acts as a shared source of truth for licenses, safety training, and insurance status, eliminating manual document checks.

• Example: A construction firm can instantly verify that all electricians on a site hold current, valid licenses issued by accredited authorities.
• ROI Driver: Reduces project delays, lowers liability, and prevents work stoppages due to non-compliant subcontractors.

A decentralized identity layer is the cornerstone of a Zero-Trust security model. It moves access control from the network perimeter to the individual user and device, enabling "never trust, always verify" for every transaction.

• Strategic Benefit: Provides the foundation for secure IoT device identity, remote operational technology (OT) access, and seamless mergers & acquisitions (integrating identity systems).
• Long-Term ROI: This architectural shift reduces long-term capital expenditure on legacy, perimeter-based security hardware.

Replace static badges and passwords with self-sovereign identity (SSI) credentials stored on employee devices. Access to server rooms, control systems, and cloud dashboards is granted via cryptographic proofs, not a central database. This eliminates credential theft and enables instant revocation.

• Example: A European energy grid operator pilots SSI for contractor access, cutting onboarding time from 5 days to 2 hours and eliminating badge fraud.

Vendors and parts for critical infrastructure (e.g., power plant components, network hardware) require rigorous vetting. Verifiable Credentials (VCs) on a blockchain create a tamper-proof chain of custody and compliance documentation.

• Benefit: Automated checks for supplier certifications and part provenance, reducing manual audits by over 80%.
• ROI Driver: Prevents costly downtime from counterfeit parts and accelerates procurement.

Industries like energy and finance face strict "who accessed what and when" regulations (NERC CIP, SOX). A permissioned blockchain ledger provides an immutable, timestamped record of all access events that cannot be altered retroactively.

• Solves the Pain Point: Eliminates forensic investigations after a breach and streamlines compliance reporting.
• Quantifiable Outcome: One utility provider reduced audit preparation time from 3 weeks to 3 days.

In Industrial IoT (IIoT), devices like sensors and actuators in a water treatment plant need to authenticate securely. Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) give each machine a unique, cryptographically verifiable identity, enabling secure automated communication without a vulnerable central hub.

• The Fix: Prevents spoofing attacks that could lead to physical system manipulation.
• Business Value: Enables scalable, secure automation of critical processes.

During crises, first responders and external engineers need immediate, temporary access to systems. A blockchain-based credentialing system allows instant issuance and verification of time-bound access rights by authorized issuers, visible to all participating organizations.

• Real-World Test: A pilot between a municipal utility and emergency services cut emergency response coordination time by 65%.
• Key Feature: Rights auto-expire, eliminating the risk of orphaned access permissions.

Blockchain is not a silver bullet. Success requires:

• Clear Ownership: Defining who issues and revokes credentials.
• Integration Strategy: Phased rollout with existing IAM systems (e.g., Active Directory).
• Legal & Privacy Frameworks: Ensuring compliance with data sovereignty laws (e.g., GDPR). Start with a pilot on a non-critical system to prove ROI before scaling.