Public Relations

Karamba Security Solution, Distributed by Asgent, Adopted for World's First Cyberhack-Protected Autonomous Car

June 19, 2017
Asgent, Inc.
(JASDAQ: 4288)

Asgent, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4288, President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in network security and operations management solutions, announces that Karamba Security (CEO & CO-founder: Ami Dotan, located in Israel), the developer of the autonomous security product "Carwall" that Asgent is the sole distributor for in Japan, has been adopted by VEDECOM Tech^*1 for their connected card and non-assisted automatic driving cars.
As a result, this will be the first time that a commercially available totally autonomous vehicle with cyber-attack protections will be produced in the automotive industry.

VEDECOM Tech is a public-private organization established in 2014 as part of the French governments "Investment for the Future Plan", and has many automobile makers and related manufacturers such as Renault, Peugeot and Valeo amongst its members. The organization will introduce totally non-assisted autonomous vehicles (SAE Level 5^*2) in 2017 and 2018 in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. VEDECOM Tech will use Karamba Security's "Carwall" and "Autonomous Security" software to protect against hacking risks on ECUs (Electronic Control Units).

In light of this adoption, Frederic Mathis, VEDECOM Tech CEO and President, made the following comment.
"As we bring our first self-driving cars into production, we planned for cybersecurity technology to be part of the car’s design. We evaluated the market extensively, and after serious consideration concluded that Karamba Security's technology is the best way to prevent, not just detect, cyber threats and keep passengers and cars safe. Karamba's Autonomous Security achieves that by autonomously hardening ECUs and preventing hacker infiltration with zero false positives. This approach uniquely prevents cyberattacks, and at the same time satisfies the industry's intolerance to consumer safety risks, resulting from false alarms (aka ‘false positives’) that mistakenly block legitimate vehicle commands.”

Also, Ami Dotan, CEO and Co-Founder of Karamba Security, made the following comment.
"We are excited to be the first cybersecurity company to have its technology adopted in commercially available cars. VEDECOM Tech is a formidable partner, which has been successfully implementing state-of-the-art technologies that enable self-driving cars to become a reality. Protecting these autonomous and connected vehicles from cyberattacks is VEDECOM Tech’s priority, and we are proud to enable this cyber protection."

Karamba Security's solution will be used to strengthen security on the externally connected ECU (manufactured by YoGoKo), which is used as a communications solution for VEDECOM Tech autonomous vehicles. YoGoKo solutions enable vehicles to maintain internet connectivity and exchange data with other vehicles, road and urban infrastructure and cloud apps in a standardized way (ISO, CEN, ETSI standards), combining a diversity of access technologies (urban Wi-Fi, ITS-G5, cellular, LoRa etc.). Moreover, communications security must be complemented with system-level security. Karamba Security works with YoGoKo to block malware and strengthen authentication, thereby protecting against cyber-attacks and increasing the reliability of non-assisted autonomous driving.

VEDECOM Tech will provide a fleet of autonomous vehicles for the Autopilot Project^*3. Autopilot Project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 731993.
VEDECOM Tech, YoGoKo and Karamba Security will showcase their partnership to protect VEDECOM Tech’s self-driving cars at booth number A10 during the 12th ITS European Congress, June 19-22, 2017 at the Strasbourg Convention Centre.

[Carwall and Autonomous Security]
Communications between vehicles and surrounding infrastructure certainly have the potential to improve driving safety and traffic management. These transmissions need to be highly secured, however, because malicious actors may target this intelligence to interfere with the car's critical components. A car's electronics system also needs protection because hackers may tamper with that as well. Attackers try to inject malicious messages designed to modify a vehicle’s behavior, either by a local or remote attack.
Karamba Security has responded to the challenges with Carwall and Autonomous Security, an approach that hardens the car's ECUs against hackers trying to take control of its safety systems, such as brakes and steering, for malicious purposes. Karamba safeguards the vehicle’s electronics and entire system from being hacked by threat actors, and offers these advantages:
- A software solution that prevents cyberattacks with zero false positives, eliminating the risk of safety impacts
- No anti-malware updates required
- Automatic policy generation with zero development efforts

Recently, Karamba Security was awarded by unanimous judges' decision the “"Best Auto Cybersecurity Product/Service of 2017" at TU-Automotive Detroit 2017.

Asgent will continue sales proposal activities in collaboration with Karamba Security towards not only automotive makers, but peripheral device makers and OS providers, along with IoT device makers. Also, Asgent and Karamba Security will host, in collaboration with SCSK, the "Connected Car Security Seminar^*4"on July 3, 2017 (Tokyo Station Conference, Free Admission (requires pre-registration)).

*1 VEDECOM Tech
http://www.vedecom.fr/ite/?lang=en

*2 SAE Level5
SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). Level 5 refers to total non-assisted autonomous driving, whereby acceleration/steering/power control is all controlled without need for the driver to be involved.

*3 Autopilot Project
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/206508_en.html

*4 Connected Car Security Seminar
http://www.connectedcar-security.jp/