Advanced Engineering
The automotive industry has been subject to a major shift in technology. The teams of experts at secunet are not only continuously informed about innovative trends and developments, but also actively contribute to their creation. In this manner, we ensure that our customers always remain a step ahead of their competitors. The automotive sector will come up against three challenges in the near future: Car2X-Communication, Car2Grid and the virtualisation of control units.
Car-2-X-Communication
Networked vehicles communicate with each other (Car2Car) as well as with their direct surroundings (Car2Infrastructure), and online with the whole world. This development is driven by customers’ desire for more online services in the vehicle, on the one hand, and by the EU objective to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities, on the other.
The growing connectivity poses new challenges for OEMs:
- How is it possible to assess whether the content of a message is trustworthy?
- How are unauthorised senders detected?
- Can the driver still blindly trust messages from the onboard network?
- How can the driver or the vehicle detect attacks and how can these be blocked?
We offer our customers the following services:
- Studies on technical feasibility
- Creation of business and IT concepts including technical implementation
- Project support and project management
- Evaluation of existing hardware and software concepts with consideration given to process and security aspects
Car-2-Grid
The smart grid is meant to improve power generation and distribution with more flexibility on the one hand and to provide greater economy for consumers and producers on the other. Electric vehicles will play an important role in this regard. They are expected to help flatten peaks in demand in terms of power generation and consumption. Power not currently required is to be temporarily stored in vehicles and supplied back to the grid at periods of peak demand. This requires a permanent network connection between the vehicle and the grid (Car2Grid).
Carmakers face new challenges in this regard:
- A secure connection between the vehicle and the infrastructure, set up together with the power supply industry
- Identification and authorisation of vehicle and owner
- Metering and billing of kilowatt-hours used and supplied back to the grid
- Securing payment functions in the vehicle
This scenario can only be implemented if trust is established with consumers by means of reliable security. We would be pleased to serve you with consulting and support as a reliable partner, also for the implementation.
Virtualisation of control units
In company networks, TCP/IP has established itself as a cost-effective communication standard and is available with a high level of maturity. Carmakers also want to benefit from this. In order to reduce costs and complexity of today’s onboard networks, IP-based onboard networks are being examined in the midterm in the automotive industry. In this way, technical trends from the IT environment are being applied to the automotive world. This means that the virtualisation of servers and complete network environments will play a major role in the design of onboard networks in future. As a result of control unit virtualisation, it is possible to reduce the number of installed control units and therefore the costs of producing a car as well.
Appropriate security measures are required for the new onboard network architectures: During the design phase, the security requirements of the physically available control units must be compared against those of the virtual ones. Interdependencies must be taken into consideration to make use of synergies.
We would be pleased to offer you our extensive expertise in designing secure IP networks and protecting onboard networks during the analysis and in designing future IP-based onboard networks.
