Spotlight on Security at the third virtual Chapter Event

On Monday June 22, we took a deep dive into the topic of cybersecurity for autonomous vehicles. In a fully online setting, we managed to gather experts representing over 100 different companies to address security challenges and work towards a Global Reference Solution for safe mobility.

The Autonomous Chapter Event Safety & Security brought a truly international lineup of speakers who tuned in from three different time zones and showcased their research or made great contributions with their know-how in the panel discussions. We’re very grateful to:

• Harry Knechtel (Head of Production – Division Industry, secunet)
• Christoph Schmittner (Scientist in Cyber Security and Functional Safety, AIT)
• Markus Tschersich (Manager Security and Privacy Standardization & Regulatory Affairs, Continental)
• Dr. Jörg Schepers (Product Line Manager Automotive Microcontroller Powertrain, Infineon Technologies)
• Shiran Ezra (Product Director, Argus Cyber Security)
• Dr. Eduard Metzker (Manager Automotive Cyber Security Solution, Vector)
• Darryl Parisien (Sales Director, Integrity Security Services)

The Chapter Event covered two focus topics:

FUNDAMENTALS AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES ON SECURITY

This first part of the Chapter Event concluded with the following:

• A considerable amount of effort is required in order to develop and align relevant and cybersecurity standards that can ensure future automated vehicles are safe and secure.
• Over-the-air updates have to be well-thought and consider (i) user-friendliness, (ii) compliance with regulatory bodies, (iii) and last but not least their effect on the overall safety of the vehicle.
• There needs to be a balance between (i) a minimum set of security requirements (defined by standardization bodies), (ii) the efficiency of the security algorithms, (iii) and the performance of future embedded hardware.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The highlights of the second part of the Chapter Event emphasized the following:

• Approaches as secure boot and authentic communication have become a mainstream solution when it comes to the automotive security.
• Nevertheless, further complementary approaches are necessary when it comes to ensuring the safety of future highly connected vehicles.
• The so-called Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) that have been widely used in the IT-security landscape receive a growing attention from OEMs and technology suppliers as a complementary security mechanism.
• With the growing popularity of connected and automated vehicles, the interest of hackers as well as the likelihood of unknown/zero-day attacks is growing. Hence, future connected and automated vehicles need to implement mechanisms to detect them.

As with the previous Chapter Events, each presentation was followed by a live Q&A session via Slido, tailored to the online participants’ main interests. Thus, the attendees had the opportunity to further discuss certain topics and interact with the keynote speakers.

The open conversations confirm the value of The Autonomous community coming together to share ideas, highlight new developments and debate on the future standards for safe autonomous mobility.

The Autonomous team was thrilled to collaborate with the event co-host, Infineon Technologies to bring all parties of the automotive supply chain together to address the security landscape.

We are currently gathering feedback from all our participants and summarizing the technical input of this Chapter Event on Safety & Security, which will be included in The Autonomous Report.

If you are interested in contributing to our work towards Global Reference Solutions in safe autonomous mobility, please get in touch with us!