Automotive Security
Robert Palin
Technical Specialist for Systems and Software Security, Jaguar Land Rover
The automotive industry is a highly-competitive, consumer market driven industry, where there is a continuous need to develop new vehicle features and functionality to match and/or exceed consumer expectations in a timely fashion. A key enabler for many new features has been the rapid increase in connectivity to on-board vehicle systems using a variety of familiar computer and mobile communication technologies such as USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. For the majority of current and future vehicles, the isolating “air gap” is, and will be, no more.
With this increase in connectivity, however, comes the risk associated with cyber security threats. Given that security is a fundamental prerequisite for assuring other vehicle dependability attributes such as safety, to reduce (operational) risk (and cost) the current recommended practice within the industry is for effective security controls to be specified as requirements and then implemented. These security controls may manifest themselves in the product, the process used to create the product, or the organisation that supports the product. This presentation will explore the problem space associated with automotive security.
About Robert Palin
Rob is the Technical Specialist for Systems and Software Security at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). He has worked in the automotive industry for over 20 years – including periods at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and at several Tier 1s. His experience covers a wide spectrum of automotive areas.His automotive career started at a Tier 1, authoring service bay diagnostic software for a large OEM. This was followed by a period of time working in JLR Research where he produced a number of proof of concept technology demonstrator vehicles for projects such as: Auto-pc, Night Vision, Air Intake Active Noise Control, Phantom and Dual View.After having an epiphany moment, following a presentation by Tim Davis – the then Henry Ford Technical Fellow for Quality Engineering at Ford Motor Company – he became actively involved in improving the dependability of JLR vehicles. This initially involved becoming a certified 6 Sigma Black Belt (DMAIC and DfSS) before training to become a Functional Safety engineer. As a Functional Safety engineer at JLR and as a Functional Safety consultant, Rob has worked on a variety of Powertrain, Driveline and Hybrid X-by-wire safety critical systems that are on current production vehicles.In 2012 Rob embarked on an EngD in Large Scale Complex IT Systems at the University of York, and it was during this time that he became interested in the challenges of automotive cyber security; the composite attribute of dependability. His EngD research is focused on early life cycle analysis techniques for assuring automotive vehicle systems.Sponsored by
