Press Release, April 01, 2025
ERATOSTHENES Project Comes to an End: Advancing Secure IoT Device Lifecycle Management through Trust, Identity, and Distributed Ledger Technologies
Brussels, March 2025 – The Horizon 2020-funded project ERATOSTHENES (Grant Agreement ID: 101020416), coordinated by INLECOM Innovation, has officially ended after 3.5 years of research and innovation to enhance the security, trust, and privacy of IoT device networks across Europe.
Project Vision & Challenge
Launched in October 2021, ERATOSTHENES addressed key security challenges facing the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem:
• Limited visibility and interoperability across IoT networks
• Fragmented trust enforcement mechanisms
• Lack of shared standards, identity frameworks, and effective CERT/CSIRT tools
• Weak adoption of security protocols and training for both devices and people
As smart devices become more and more embedded to people’s daily life, ensuring their secure integration and management is necessary.
Konstantinos Loupos, R&D Director at INLECOM INNOVATION and Project Coordinator, reflects on the project’s journey:
“More than ever, people are opting to add multiple devices and smart technology to their lives, but the more they add, the more complicated security and privacy become. We must make sure we are putting steps in place to prevent outside threats by accessing our data (including personal information) and work to improve devices’ trust and security compliance. ERATOSTHENES provided us with the opportunity to work closely with experts from industry and academia, to materialize cutting edge solutions that build on innovative tools and frameworks, ensuring the efficient management of the lifecycle of IoT devices. The project offers valuable solutions supporting the enforcement of the NIS directive, GDPR and the Cybersecurity Act. The project concluded with a successful Final Workshop attended by more than 130 participants, where experts from industry, academia, European organizations (such as ENISA), and national organizations (such as the National Cybersecurity Authority) presented their visions for the cybersecurity domain. Consortium partners also presented the final outcomes, which were validated against industrial requirements in three critical sectors: Healthcare, Connected Vehicles, and Industry 4.0”
Key Outcomes & Business Impact
ERATOSTHENES delivered a suite of modular, standards-aligned solutions aimed at IoT manufacturers, solution providers, and infrastructure operators. Highlights include:
• Trust Framework & Reference Architecture for secure identity and trust management across distributed IoT networks, particularly in resource-constrained and industrial environments.
• Lightweight Distributed Trust Manager to dynamically develop and manage trust across large-scale, heterogeneous IoT networks.
• Privacy-Preserving Identity Management System, including self-sovereign identity principles, encrypted credentials, and identity recovery mechanisms.
• Lifecycle Governance via Distributed Ledger Technologies, utilising smart contracts and hybrid consensus protocols for automating access policies, threat intelligence exchange, and recovery processes.
• Real-world validation across three high-impact domains: Healthcare, Connected Vehicles, and Industry 4.0, complemented by hands-on cybersecurity training sessions and simulation exercises.
Overall, ERATOSTHENES advanced the state of the art in IoT security by developing components and workflows for standardized device identity management throughout the device lifecycle. Its cutting-edge solutions integrated key standards such as Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) while ensuring smooth interaction between monitoring, risk assessment, trust evaluation, security enforcement, and identity management systems, within international standards for cybersecurity.
Final Workshop & Stakeholder Engagement
The project culminated in a successful Final Workshop, attended by over 130 participants, including experts from industry, academia, European institutions such as ENISA, and national authorities such as the National Cybersecurity Authority.
The workshop served as a platform for:
- Sharing project outcomes and validation results
- Discussing Europe’s approach to identity, trust, and resilience in IoT systems
- Fostering collaboration across research, policy, and industry stakeholders
It reinforced the importance of cybersecurity-by-design and collaborative innovation in building a more secure and resilient digital Europe.
About ERATOSTHENES
ERATOSTHENES – Secure Management of IoT Devices Lifecycle through Identities, Trust and Distributed Ledgers – was funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and coordinated by INLECOM Innovation. The project brought together a multidisciplinary consortium to devise, implement and evaluate a novel distributed, automated, auditable, yet privacy-respectful, Trust and Identity Management Framework intended to dynamically and holistically manage the lifecycle of IoT devices, strengthening trust, identities, privacy and resilience in the entire IoT ecosystem, supporting the enforcement of the NIS directive, GDPR and Cybersecurity Act.
