AUTO-SIMA – Secure Control of Data in the Vehicle
In the automotive world, digital networking within the vehicle is far advanced. Dozens of interconnected control units have been working inside the vehicle for a long time, providing the driver with comfort, assistance and safety functions. In addition, the vehicle is increasingly opening up to the outside world via predominantly wireless interfaces such as Bluetooth or the mobile phone network in order to expand the range of functions via mostly cloud-based services. This additional information allows for improved quality of vehicle functionality, especially for driver assistance systems. However, in addition to all the advantages, these developments also harbour potential dangers. Systems can be deliberately disrupted and "crashed" by deliberate malicious manipulation of the transmitted data. The project "Development of an automotive security policy management and distributed firewall concept for interconnected services (AUTO-SIMA)" addresses potential threats and develops intelligent security measures.
The AUTO-SIMA project researches intelligent protection measures in the field of access control for future vehicles
The AUTO-SIMA project was launched at the end of 2017 and researches firewall solutions and access control procedures through participating industry partners in order to check data traffic in the vehicle for malicious network packets. On the other hand, access control procedures are also being investigated to protect data and functions from unauthorised access. To this end, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project within the framework of the funding guideline "Young Engineers - Cooperative Doctorate". In addition, it is being scientifically accompanied by the Institute for Information Processing Technology (ITIV) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
In order to develop suitable approaches for firewalls and access control, the project will first analyse previous attacks on vehicles in order to extract the attackers' methods and network paths being used. Based on this, effective methods can then be derived.
Dynamic vehicle communication
Since previous vehicles only contained signal-oriented communication, this was considered too "static" and thus not very flexible to equip them with new functions or updates in the field. However, this functionality is of enormous importance for the future, as security updates must be installed regularly, especially with regard to information security (cf. e.g. regular short update cycles in the area of classic IT systems or smartphones).
Against this background, car manufacturers are currently reacting and working on a new paradigm of service-oriented architectures (SOA), which should enable more dynamic communication in the vehicle as well as with the outside world (other vehicles, backend servers).
The protection of communication also plays an important role here, which AUTO-SIMA is also investigating. The changes to signal-oriented architectures and how previous approaches from the IT and automotive domains can be adapted are analysed in detail.
More about our equipment: Automotive Mobility Lab
Research at IEEM
At the Institute for Energy Efficient Mobility (IEEM) of the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA), the approaches developed in the project are integrated on a prototype vehicle network in order to evaluate them. The setup is also used for public events in order to communicate results to interested persons or potential students, e.g. on campus days.
Key data
Karlsruhe
Institute of Energy Efficient Mobility (IEEM)
Moltkestr. 30
76133 Karlsruhe
Post >
Institute of Energy Efficient Mobility (IEEM)
Postfach 2440
76012 Karlsruhe