The modern, connected car is at an ever-increasing risk of some kind of cybersecurity attack. By 2025, 400 million cars will be connected to a cellular network. That’s why it’s so important to harden the vehicle’s defenses now. This month’s meeting will discuss the state of Automotive Cybersecurity, hear from leaders in this space, and introduce many startups solving problems in the segment.
Silicon Valley, California, February 9, 2023/Meeting Recap/ The modern, connected car is at an ever-increasing risk of some kind of cybersecurity attack. By 2025, 400 million cars will be connected to a cellular network. That’s why it’s so important to harden the vehicle’s defenses now. At February's Autotech Council meeting in Sunnyvale CA, we looked at Automotive Cybersecurity, heard from leaders in this space, and introduced many startups solving problems in the segment.
One of the main vectors of potential attack is the cellular & Internet connection that connects the car to the world, so a key part of our meeting’s discussion and presentations dealt with attacks over the network. We learned that the countermeasures needed to be multi-layered. Solutions for detecting and blocking intrusion in the hardware (chips, computers, etc.), a hardening of physical access points (USB, OBDII ports, etc.), network isolation (tunneling, firewalls, etc.), a validation of connected endpoints, and certification of OTA software were just some of the key strategies in place.
The costs of getting it wrong are terrible. It can be as mundane as a Denial of Service, where the customer’s key fob doesn’t work, or streaming media is blocked, but it can be as serious as a fleet of cars turned into projectiles. This catastrophic possibility is why carmakers are diligently considering all risks, but also the right technologies to blunt the attacks.
In this meeting, we heard from Reza Pedrami, Cybersecurity Expert at CS Group Canada on the state of global standards for auto cybersecurity, and in particular the EU regulations that are currently the most demanding. Vijayadurga Adusumilli, Technical Director at Argus Cybersecurity and Ravi Puvvala, VP Strategic Partnerships, Cybersecurity at Harman spoke with us on our Panel about the role of the different stakeholders in the auto cybersecurity industry, elaborating on what OEMs can do, what their vendors can do, the role of white hat hackers (hint: the industry should embrace them), and what innovators can do. We also discussed the shifting business of risk management, and who is responsible for breakdowns.
Ravi also suggested that people have a look at Auto-ISAC, an industry collaboration effort for which he recently joined the Board. Auto-ISAC is about the sharing of best practices among vehicle makers, and a collaborative way of fighting back against the many threats.
As always, our meeting was crowned with a variety of great startup pitches with important elements of a complete cybersecurity architecture for OEM vehicle makers. Our members can always see the day’s presentations in our Member’s Library. Big thanks to all the contributors!