Last week, Dresden was host to the CyberSecure Car 15 conference with experts from the automotive and security markets discussing the topic in detail. The two-day conference covered many interesting topics and some of the highlights are included in this overview.
One interesting topic posed by Dr. Rainer Holve, VP and head of connected car at Elektrobit Automotive, is the concept of security vs. safety and the interrelationship between these topics. Does security drive safety or vice versa? The view he offered is that security protects safety and there is no safety without security. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. As concerns swirl about the connected car and the opportunity for hackers to take control of your car and make “unsafe” actions occur, the thought process behind that statement easily falls into place.
Is there a future in which autonomous theft could occur with a scenario where hackers are the “Pied Pipers” of autonomous vehicles; taking control of them and directing them in an unsafe fashion? This is something the industry needs to protect against. The connected car needs to be considered a single system, and in order to properly protect this system, all potential malicious activity needs to be prohibited from becoming contagious across the entire system.
Another interesting topic raised by a few of the speakers is whether or not the industry even knows if it has been hacked. Although there’s been many “hacks” by researchers in the news lately, what if a truly malicious hack has occurred and is lying in wait to be activated or just being used by the hackers to gather information. Are there records that can truly determine if this is the case? The popular opinion seems to be, there are not.
Many presenters also talked about the statistic that there are more than 50 attack surfaces in the vehicle and that figure could continue to grow. The connected car is a very complex computer that needs proper protection. Below is a visual from Intel highlighting some of the key attack surfaces of concern. 
A company called TowerSec discussed its solution for intrusion detection and prevention in the connected car. The solution turns an ECU gateway into a connected car firewall. I’ve been waiting to hear this concept discussed more widely in the industry and wonder when we’ll see established security giants jump on this bandwagon. The video below helps to visualize how this solution works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOykFMf15K0
These are just a few highlights of the event, which shared a great deal of thought-provoking topics. More information can be found via the event organizers Automotive Knowledge Associates.
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Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.
