September 2016
32
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nternet
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hings
Protecting the connected car against
cyberattacks
By Timo van Roermund,
NXP
This article highlights how secure
interfaces, secure gateway, secure
network and secure processing can
protect the connected car against
cyberattacks, and allow its users to be
in full control of their data, making
the connected car an opportunity for
business and society, rather than a
threat to us all.
The automotive industry is rapidly evolv-
ing and the car is being transformed from a
simple mode of transport to a personalized
mobile information hub. All these electronic
functions bring great benefits to the driver,
increasing comfort, convenience, safety and
efficiency. But these features come with new
risks, too. Modern vehicles are gradually
turning into smartphones-on-wheels, which
continuously generate, process, exchange
and store large amounts of data. Their wire-
less interfaces connect the in-vehicle systems
of these connected cars to external networks
such as the internet, enhancing consumer
experience by enabling new features and ser-
vices. But this connectivity also makes the
connected car vulnerable to hackers who
attack the vehicle by seeking and exploit-
ing weaknesses in its computer systems or
networks. In fact, recently hackers indeed
demonstrated that they could gain remote
control over vehicles.
Until recently, cars have been isolated from
their environment and from the internet. The
only exception was maybe the interface for
vehicle diagnostics, but because this OBD-II
port is a wired interface, it could rely on
the physical protection offered by the vehi-
cle chassis, like the electronic control units
(ECUs) and the in-vehicle network (IVN).
But things are changing rapidly, most mod-
ern cars already allow smartphones to be
paired via Bluetooth with the car radio for
hands-free phone calls or to play music. And
it doesn’t stop there: many modern cars are
wirelessly connected to the internet, for exam-
ple to enable additional services in the car and,
to a certain extent, provide for remote control
over the car such as remote unlocking and
starting. Their wireless interfaces connect the
in-vehicle systems of these connected cars to
external networks such as the internet, which
forms an entry point for hackers, opening the
door for remote attacks.
The range of attacks that a connected car faces
is extensive and diverse: it varies from rela-
tively simple attacks, in which for example
malicious messages are sent to a vehicle, to
more sophisticated attacks in which hackers
may open up ECUs and try to reverse engineer
their microcontrollers and software. Cyberat-
tacks pose a threat to the reliability and safety
of the car: the hacker can potentially take con-
trol over the car, as well as to the privacy of
the driver, and the vehicle data can be used to
build a profile of its user(s). Therefore, steps
need to be taken now: the connected car must
be secured, to ensure the correct functioning
of all in-vehicle systems, as well as user privacy.
This implies a paradigm shift in the design of
in-vehicle electronics. A first reason for that
is there isn’t a single, well-defined hacker. In
fact, there are various attackers, with differ-
ent motivations, skill levels and resources. For
example, there may be (academic) research-
ers who try to take (partial) control over the
vehicle, for scientific reasons. Or there may be
(organized) criminals with large budgets that
want to steal valuable data from a vehicle, for
financial gain. Traditionally, there has been a
strong focus on safety, meaning that for exam-
ple the brakes should function correctly under
all circumstances. Safety will remain equally
important in the future, but the increasing
amount of electronics and software in vehi-
cles will additionally require security, to pro-
tect the vehicle against hackers.
In 2015, vehicle hacks reached the popular
press, with the Jeep and Tesla, and caused
some of the biggest vehicle recalls in history.
For the first time, the public started to under-
stand the need for increased in-vehicle secu-
rity. US politicians felt the need to get involved
and most recently the FBI have decided the
risk is so high, they have even issued warnings
to the public. But the events of last year have
also shown the world that different OEMs had
different security levels in place already, and
different speeds of solving the issue. Most
vehicle hacks consists of a number of smaller
steps. It usually starts with finding vulnerabil-
ity (a bug) in a system that is remotely acces-
sible. But once you get for example into a car
