As we close 2018 let me share a prediction- Karamba Security, and Automotive Cybersecurity in general, are heading towards a great year.
My confidence comes from the momentum we see in the closing of 2018 We see more and more OEMs stressing the importance of in-vehicle security implementations and specifically ECU protection. There is also a growing realization that automotive cybersecurity is now a clear market need.
A few 2018 events that have helped the OEM to adopt this transformative thinking:
Real attacks by white hat hackers (such as Keen Labs) successfully penetrated the car by compromising externally connected ECUs. Such
vulnerabilities were exploited in BMW and Audi/VW, to influence the vehicle behavior- steering and speed.
There is a greater understanding about the total cost of ownership for deploying network security and the required analyst/response team. While detection/response has long been part of the best practices, built-in security for ECU hardening has a clear and obvious appeal.
Karamba’s technologies, which were demonstrated successfully in our 2018 customer’ engagements, proved the effectiveness of embedded Control Flow Integrity (CFI) in preventing the exploit of unknown, hidden security vulnerabilities. But it is not just us. Ideally for Karamba, in October 2018, Google announced Android 9 with support for CFI in kernel level. And while it is not as complete a solution as Karamba’s, this is still a great endorsement from a top security team.
And 2019 is promising to be even more impactful for cybersecurity in the automotive industry, largely due to external forces that are driving the momentum. This year we will see the US Congress regulate Autonomous Vehicle deployments. Cybersecurity is part of all drafts and clearly a safety concern given the elimination of the driver - the ultimate cyber-physical buffer.
We will also see the publication of the ISO Automotive Cybersecurity standard (ISO21434). Karamba is a member of few working groups of this distinguished committee and can see how Security by Design is becoming fundamental approach for developing a modern ECU.
And of course, there is another critical contribution that is hard to overstate: the expanding Karamba team, our “can do” spirit, and our passionate investors, all of which are driving us to excel and capture the market opportunity.
It’s clear that 2019 is heading in the right direction and this is encouraging, both for Karamba Security as well as for the industry. We truly believe that stronger automotive cybersecurity is helping this great industry to capitalize on the biggest transformation since Henry Ford’s model T; the connected, electric, autonomous vehicle.
Happy New Year and see you at CES next week.
