Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey warns about cybersecurity threats all connected cars face at the World Automobile Conference in Istanbul, Turkey

 Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey warns about cybersecurity threats all connected cars face at the World Automobile Conference in Istanbul, Turkey

Geneva – October 4, 2018 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey” SIX: WIHN; OTCQX: WIKYY)), a leading Swiss cybersecurity and IoT company, announced today that during his speech at the World Automobile Conference (WAC) in Istanbul, Turkey, CEO, Carlos Moreira addressed security threats all connected cars face and ways to protect against these threats. .   WAC 2018 provides a platform where 800+ attendees from across the entire automotive industry gather to learn and discuss the latest trends and technologies affecting their businesses.

Virtually all new cars on the market today include electronic technologies that could pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions if data security is not addressed, said Carlos Moreira during his keynote speech. 

For example, smart cars without cybersecurity protection technology could allow hackers to gain remote access by exploiting vulnerabilities in their ecosystem of connected components and online services. As the number of cars connected to the Internet is growing quickly (to over a quarter of a billion by year 2020, as estimated by Gartner), smart car manufactures are working to identify and reduce potential hacking vulnerabilities in their vehicles. 

WISeKey has added several leading European and Asian car manufacturers into its customer base for cybersecurity services, thus cementing its role in the Connected Car sector. Agreements with car manufacturers include integration of WISeKey’s IoT and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in the manufacturers’ connected car solutions. WISeKey ISTANA platform allows smart car manufactures to validate the authenticity of different vehicle components.  Certificate-based security also protects onboard communication between vehicle components and enables secure over-the-air software updates.  Additionally, authentication certificates can be used by employees, dealers and suppliers to access car components to diagnose mechanical/technical issues and update software, from any location.  Finally, the ISTANA PKI platform allows users to securely interact with a car’s smart features using smartphones and other devices.

Connected cars, autonomous and semi-autonomous cars are quickly finding their way onto public roads, holding great promise to improve road safety, reduce congestion and emissions, and increase the accessibility of personal mobility. We are seeing a major shift from hardware to software in the automotive industry, with modern vehicles now relying on hundreds of millions of lines of code that need to be secured.

BI Intelligence expects 94 million connected cars to be sold in 2021, and 82% of all cars sold during that year, to be connected. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 35%, from 21 million connected cars sold in 2016.

In recent years, security protections of smart cars have expanded using proven IoT technologies. There is increased use of “secure element” chips provided by WISeKey Semiconductor to authenticate individual car components within the vehicle itself and to the online services it interacts with, and to ensure that only legitimate software is installed in the car. 

A fundamental principle behind the security of WISeKey Semiconductors is that its chips not only control how devices perform under normal conditions, but also control how these devices react when attacked or tampered with in any way, including self-destruction.

The European automotive cybersecurity market is projected to reach USD 224 million by 2024. Germany dominates the European automotive cybersecurity market as it is home to some of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen, BMZ, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and Porsche. These companies are working with various software cybersecurity providers to increase the security offering aimed at maintaining passenger safety while traveling.

“As cars continue to evolve, essentially becoming motorized computers, they are vulnerable to the very same threats and attacks as home computers, laptops and smartphones. Unless appropriate cybersecurity measures are implemented, hackers can remotely access the vehicle’s computer system, manipulate the brakes, engine, and transmission. Our technology is designed to help verify legitimate car systems, protect the data they create and avoid malicious hacking,” said Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey.

WISeKey has a strong presence in the IoT market with both its widely-used VaultIC chips and PKI across a variety of industries ranging from luxury products to telecommunications hardware to the automotive sector.

WISeKey’s solutions reduce potential security threats by:

      ·        Providing IoT “secure element” chips – essentially a small smartcard – from WISeKey Semiconductor that can be embedded into different components of the car to enhance the security of their electronic functions.
      ·        Providing highly-scalable and reliable PKI from WISeKey and QuoVadis to create the electronic credentials that assert the identity of device or authorized users and enable encryption to protect data or software integrity. These PKI solutions are highly adaptable to both the “lightweight” technology needs of IoT and the changing attributes of IoT devices over time after the vehicle has left the car factory.
      ·        In short, the WISeKey IoT solutions benefit both, the manufacturer (providing cost-effective protection and security of all car components and their related online services), and the driver (securing the massive amount of data created by smart cars, including  driver’s personal behavior and movements, similar to the data created by a smartphone).

About WISeKey:
WISeKey (SIX: WIHN; OTCQX: WIKYY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems with a patented process. WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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