California-based cybersecurity provider Fortinet is partnering with Japanese semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics to explore ways of protecting driverless cars from cyber-attacks that could result in intruders taking control of vehicles.
Manufacturers are beginning to develop vehicles that require automated security with real-time threat intelligence and strategic segmentation to protect the car's complex architecture.
Connected vehicles will be equipped with autonomous driving capabilities, sensor processing, cloud-based services, smart device integration and advanced LAN/CAN networks, all of which are vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches, according to Fortinet.
"Integrated security is paramount for the safety and consumer confidence in the connected car," said Michael Xie, president of Fortinet.
Fortinet exhibited a prototype of the cybersecurity capabilities for connected cars at the Consumer Electrics Show held Jan 9-12 in Las Vegas.
The prototype integrates Fortinet's FortiOS security operating system with Renesas's R-Car H3 system-on-chip (SoC) to secure vehicle network domains, cloud-based services and applications.
In order to test the system, Fortinet and Renesas created mock cyberbreaches on a connected car at the show, including IPS (intrusion prevention system) and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
Projections put the number of connected cars at 300 million by 2025, up from 37 million in 2016, with annual revenue for connected car equipment and associated services to surpass $250 billion.
Key factors driving the global market for connected cars include increasing demand for self-driving features, implementation of data-driven decision-making and the rise of connectivity solutions within the vehicle such as access to smartphone features, music on-demand, internet connectivity and infotainment.
A connected car is equipped with internet access and a wireless local area network (LAN), allowing drivers to share internet connectivity with other devices both inside and outside the vehicle.
Security systems must cut across all communications standards, devices and networks, Mr Xie said. They also need to extend visibility, interaction and control beyond a single vehicle to include the larger transport ecosystem, including road and traffic control systems.
Connected cars require several different security solutions working as a single system, and therefore they need to include strategic segmentation of key function domains such as powertrain, telematics and infotainment to ensure that threats are automatically contained and mitigated.
Cybersecurity is already a vital concern for carmakers. In 2015, a hacker group wirelessly broke into a Jeep Cherokee and electronically controlled vital functions.
A more recent hack of a Tesla Model S interfered with the car's brakes, door locks and dashboard computer from 12 miles away.
