Public Relations

Asgent Announces Start of New Service to Visualize Attacks on Connected Cars, Provide Safe Autonomous Driving Environment
〜Providing Red Team Service, SOC Related Services〜

July 4, 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 the start of diagnostic/evaluation-focused Red Team Service and SOC-related services for connected cars, as services to visualize attacks on connected cars and provide a safer autonomous driving environment. As a result, Asgent now provides a total "product and service mix", with the product (Carwall) and Red Team & SOC-related services.

Connected cars as vehicles connected to the network are evermore in the spotlight, thanks to the acceleration and expansion of mobile networks, and the progress made with AI etc. While on the one hand there are high expectations for connected cars as they grow widespread to enable anyone to travel freely, safely and conveniently, the threats faced by these cars being connected to the network are also being debated. As the greatest threat faced by connected cars is loss of life, it is necessary to take more cautious measures than is common for security for IT equipment etc.

Carwall distributed by Asgent, implements security settings on the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) itself during the manufacturing process, making it a security product capable of preventing attacks without the need for anti-malware signature updates. The developer, Karamba Security, is receiving a lot of notice in the industry, having received a Best Practices Award from Frost & Sullivan in March 2017 for New Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry, and also received the "Best Auto Cybersecurity Product/Service of 2017" award at TU-Automotive Detroit on judges’ unanimous decision.

[Red Team Service]
The Red Team^*1 from Asgent's partner in the machine learning SOC field, Core Security (CEO: David Earhart, located in the US), performs a vulnerability diagnostic and penetration test evaluation service, focused on embedded systems such as ECUs, modules and devices connected to the CAN Bus^*2. Security specialists with experience in performing penetration tests on navigation systems carry out realistic practical attacks to determine the effectiveness of the connected cars security. As Core Security is not involved in selling Carwall, they are able to obtain objective and fair test results. As a result, it is possible to perform a quantitative/qualitative security ability evaluation both before and after implementing Carwall. Core Security has performed hundreds of red teaming cases, and as of recently is carrying out automotive red teaming on on-vehicle infotainment systems etc.

[Carwall SOC Related Services]
By monitoring, collecting, analyzing and providing feedback from the SOC on forensic information provided by Carwall, it is possible to quickly perform bug fixes on earlier model vehicles with the same type of ECU and firmware. It then becomes possible to create a PDCA cycle for increasing security for car models including those manufactured before Carwall was implemented. Asgent will provide the following two services.
- MSS (Managed Security Service) for Carwall/IoTwall
- SOC development and operations support services for Carwall/IoTwall

*1 A team comprised of security experts that carries out simulated attacks. The name "Red Team" comes from military exercises in which the attacking team is the “Red Team” and the defending team is the "Blue Team".

*2 Controller Area Network Bus. Communications network that connects various ECUs mounted on the vehicle. Devices such as engine control, braking systems, navigation system and camera are controlled by the CAN bus.