Industry Insight
IoTs, Wireless Data, OTA updates - Ensuring the Security of the Connected Car Michela Menting ABI Research
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he automotive industry is becoming increasingly reliant on computing, connectivity, and software to provide functionality and differentiators. This growth has brought cybersecurity to the fore of vehicle design. The key automotive trends that will transform how cybersecurity is applied include: • Vehicle autonomy, which will see the introduction of domain controllers to control advanced ADAS functions and eventually of domain architectures. In addition, robotaxis, where no driver is present in the vehicle and the vehicle is entirely controlled by software, will simultaneously increase the probability of cyberattacks as well as the potential implication of any cyberattacks. • Vehicle Over-The-Air (OTA) updates will see the secure internal vehicle infrastructure opened up to the outside world. Although vehicle OTA will provide a means to patch faulty software or potential vulnerabilities, the OTA process will need to be provided in a secure manner. With different types of ECUs in a vehicle and challenging CAN constraints, among other issues, vehicle OTA will require new frameworks and hardware security so that it can be implemented in a safe and secure manner. • The increasing number of devices and applications being connected to the infotainment unit, combined with the incorporation of new connectivity methods such as V2X, will mean that new security measures will be needed to validate connections and separate third-party applications and devices from accessing the core secure vehicle network. The current approach towards automotive cybersecurity is to prevent access into the vehicle via key remote 38 | Telematics Wire | November 2020
access points: the infotainment unit, the telematics unit, and the OBD-II port. Current cybersecurity measures used invehicle, namely hardware-based firewalls, application sandboxing, and Secure Hardware Extension (SHE)-specified processors, will not be enough to secure future vehicles. In particular, they do not provide enough consideration for the protection of data that will circulate internally, as well as to and from the vehicle. This is where communication security becomes important. In many ways, it is the infotainment head unit that has become central to the vehicle experience, and where data plays a crucial role. Over the coming years, more and more valuable data will be present on the vehicle as well as being uploaded to the cloud for additional services. This data will be broad and varied, including real-time location, personal information, and other contextual data related to infotainment experiences. Above all, this data will be valuable and lucrative for OEMs, application developers and service providers. Cybersecurity as such will need to safeguard not only the protection of personally identifiable information, but also data related to physical processes that may be monitored or actioned remotely. As such, security measures will need to be applied for data at rest (whether in the vehicle or in the backend), but also in motion and especially at the connection level. The threat actors that may target connected cars are not just of the cybercriminal persuasion. Vehicles are increasingly being connected to thirdparty devices and applications. This includes connection to third-party devices such as handsets and OBDII dongles as well as third-party cloud services to share data between device/service and the vehicle via the head unit. It is those third
parties that also carry a responsibility for safety and security with regards to the data communicated to and from the vehicle. Certainly, there is the further risk of unscrupulous third-party providers that are simply focused on monetization to the detriment of data protection. This poses an issue in terms of privacy protections for individuals, but can be a functional safety hazard when considering communications between vehicles, road-side units and other connected infrastructure (V2X). V2X is set to allow vehicles to communicate with other vehicles as well as the surrounding infrastructure. Possible V2X applications are numerous and include, among others: • Autonomous Vehicle Applications: Utilizing V2X as a key sensor for being able to detect other vehicles and stationary objects that are at distance or in a position (i.e., around a corner) that means they cannot be detected by the sensor suite. • Smart City Applications: Utilizing V2V and V2I to optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion, optimize parking, and charging infrastructure. • Other Applications: Relaying important information such as road conditions and nearby accidents to drivers and relevant parties such as emergency services. The potential impact of interference with V2X communications could be significant. As such, automotive stakeholders need to ensure security mechanisms are in place to minimize risks. These can include increased security in the head unit, which is the focal point for all third-party devices and applications connecting to the vehicle. OTA capabilities render it even more vulnerable and so monitoring during the device’s lifecycle is critical. OEMs should consider the possibility of separating
