The Eurecat technology centre is leading the European Selfy project, funded with a €6 million budget, in which it has developed two self-assessment and self-protection tools to enhance the resilience and cybersecurity of connected and automated vehicles in smart cities. This is at a time when around 50 million connected and automated cars are expected to be on the road next year across Europe.
The purpose of the solutions is to help “increase the cybersecurity of the vehicle network and make connected driving environments more reliable,” says Juan Caubet, Director of Eurecat’s IT & OT Security Unit.
One example is the Audit Box tool developed by Applus IDIADA and Eurecat, which is a device that can be embedded in road infrastructure such as a traffic light or a traffic sign “to audit and analyse nearby vehicles in real time,” notes Víctor Jiménez, technical coordinator of the Selfy project and a researcher in Eurecat’s IT & OT Security Unit.
The solution communicates directly with the Vehicle Security Operations Centre (VSOC) and can be configured to scan automated vehicles driving in a smart city using specific parameters, meaning that “when the tool identifies vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth networks of vehicles going by, it sends a detailed report to the VSOC for further investigation,” adds Manel Rodríguez, a cybersecurity engineer at Applus IDIADA.
It also monitors any attempted jamming, i.e. intentional blocking of communication through deliberate generation of interference, around the roadside unit and sends alerts if it is detected.
Meanwhile, the Artificial Immune System (AIS) is an advanced anomaly detection solution designed by Eurecat to protect connected vehicles against cyber threats. It draws on an artificial immune algorithm which can spot deviations or anomalies in communications. The AIS “learns the normal behaviour of vehicles,” points out Eurecat IT & OT Security Unit researcher Paula Fritzsche, which allows it to subsequently identify attacks or abnormal patterns. Continuous feedback also gradually improves detection and response capabilities.
The SELFY project consortium, led by the Eurecat technology centre, is made up of partners from eight countries including Spain with Eurecat, Tecnalia, AEVAC, Ficosa and Applus IDIADA; France with CEA and CANON; Germany with Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt and FEV.io; Austria with Virtual Vehicle and City of Vienna; the Netherlands with Eindhoven University of Technology; Japan with Okayama University; Australia with RMIT University, and Turkey with FEV.
