A method for facilitating secure communication between a user device and a network device. Encrypted data from a user device is received at the network device. The encrypted data is encrypted based on first physiological data captured by a first sensor of the user device. The first physiological data is representative of a physiological characteristic of a user of the user device. A second sensor of the network device captures second physiological data representative of the physiological characteristic of the user. A common key for encrypting further data transferred between the user device and the network device is determined, based on the encrypted data and the second physiological data. Further aspects relate to other methods for facilitating secure communication between a user and network device, a network, and a method of operating a network.

A method for managing a request to pair a first item of equipment with a second item of equipment is implemented by a device for managing a pairing request. The managing device is configured to communicate with the first item of equipment via an optical communication channel. The managing method includes: reception, via the optical communication channel, of a pairing request including data representative of the identity of the first item of equipment; and if the pairing request is authorized, transmission, via the optical communication channel, of a security key to the first item of equipment to be used during communications between the first item of equipment and the second item of equipment once the items of equipment have been paired.

An access control system for electric vehicle charging is provided that includes an access device, a secure reservation interface, a reservation server and a smartphone application installed on the smartphone. The access device includes a short-range wireless communication module connected to a processor having control of an electric vehicle charger. The secure reservation interface receives a reservation request for a reservation at a given destination. The reservation server receives the reservation request for the destination, issues a reservation certificate, and transmits the reservation certificate from the reservation server to a smartphone. The smartphone application has access to a short range wireless communication setting corresponding to the access device. The access device receives the reservation certificate from the smartphone application based on use by the smartphone application of the short-range wireless communication setting. The processor activates the electric vehicle charger based on at least the receipt of the reservation certificate.

Techniques to facilitate feature licensing of an industrial controller employed in an industrial automation environment are disclosed. In one implementation, a first private key unique to an industrial controller and a security certificate is stored in a hardware root of trust within the controller. The security certificate is signed by a certificate authority for authenticating the controller. After being authenticated, the industrial controller receives a device information package provided by the certificate authority. The device information package is encrypted with a first public key paired with the first private key and signed using a second private key assigned to the certificate authority. The controller validates the device information package using a second public key paired with the second private key and decrypts the package using the first private key. One or more functions of the industrial controller are enabled based on a license included in the device information package.

A blockchain-based data processing method and apparatus, a computer device, and a computer-readable storage medium. The method includes: obtaining a data authorization request transmitted by an authorization terminal, the data authorization request including a data authorization certificate associated with an authorizer; performing authorization verification on the authorizer according to the data authorization request to obtain a first verification result; signing the data authorization certificate according to a private key of a first blockchain in a case that the first verification result is a valid result to obtain a first certificate signature, determining the first certificate signature as a to-be-uploaded signature, and performing uploading on the data authorization certificate carrying the to-be-uploaded signature; and transmitting the data authorization certificate to a second blockchain, and providing a query permission to a query terminal in a case that signature verification on the to-be-uploaded signature by the second blockchain succeeds.

The present disclosure provides a provisioning method and a terminal device. The provisioning method is applied to the terminal device, including: the security module establishes a secure channel with the certificate authority CA server through one or more session keys shared by the security module and the CA server; and obtains one or more digital certificates from the CA server; wherein, the security module is to implement Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) functions.

An intermediary server for intermediating transfer of ownership of energy between a supplier and a user, includes circuitry that receives usage information indicating that energy has been used from a communication terminal of the user, and transmits, to a decentralized ledger system, a request for changing ownership of the energy from the previous owner to the user based on the usage information.

An apparatus for providing services, includes: circuitry that: receive, from a communication terminal of a user, a request for obtaining a particular item of one or more items provided by one or more service providers, information on the one or more items being managed on a blockchain system; transmits, to the blockchain system, a request for changing information on a use right of the particular item to indicate transfer of the use right to the user; and provides the particular item to the communication terminal of the user having the use right of the particular item.

Establishing secure communications by sending a server certificate message, the certificate message including a first certificate associated with a first encryption algorithm and a second certificate associated with a second encryption algorithm, the first certificate and second certificate bound to each other, signing a first message associated with client-server communications using a first private key, the first private key associated with the first certificate, signing a second message associated with the client-server communications using a second private key, the second private key associated with the second certificate, the second message including the signed first message, and sending a server certificate verify message, the server certificate verify message comprising the signed first message and the signed second message.

Broadly speaking, embodiments of the present techniques provide methods and systems to enable a user to securely share user information with a third party. The user information is based on a user data item, but the user data item itself is kept secret and not shared with the third party. The present techniques generate a digital attestation or verifiable credential containing the user information to Receiving an attestation request for a fact be shared.