Public Relations

Asgent Announces Start of Sales for "Upstream", SOC Solution to Monitor and Analyze Connected Car Vehicle Security

April 12, 2018
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 signing of a distributor contract with Upstream Security Ltd. (CEO & Co-Founder: Yoav Levy, located in Israel), and the start of sales of the SOC (Security Operation Center) solution "Upstream", to analyze various connected car data and alert when an anomaly occurs. With this, Asgent has a lineup of SOC solutions for connected cars, including (1) ECU security, (2) CAN Bus authentication security, and (3) smart key security to operate connected cars from a smartphone.

[Background]
  Many companies, including automotive makers (OEMs) are developing connected cars. There is increased interest in OEM and Tier1 (primary component suppliers) regarding SOC operations to monitor security on cars sold, in conjunction with the move to connected cars.
  Connected car SOCs differ from traditional SOCs in that they need to be able to respond to protocols used in connected car environments that may be used in attacks on the communication server. It is not realistic to use traditional SIEMs to perform correlative relational analysis on communication and application servers, learn user/vehicle behavior (including the ratio of divergence with normal use state) in connected cars, or handle those protocols.
  Also, car sharing companies, which are gaining a lot of attention lately, along with rental car companies and transportation companies are using the OBD II (vehicle self-diagnosis function) port to connect with external entities, and are providing smartphone apps to users over the web. In the US and other countries, security incidents related to current connected cars are occurring, and concern is increasing in Japan as well.

[Upstream monitors vehicle security centrally]
Upstream is a security solution for connected cars to alert the SOC whenever an anomaly occurs in the vehicle. Various data sent from the vehicle to the server is collected and analyzed using AI. By normalizing this data, it is possible to alert the SOC operator immediately when an abnormal situation is detected in the vehicle. By doing so, the SOC operator can determine which vehicle out of many is having the anomaly, and take action.
  Also, because Upstream is a SaaS service that doesn’t require installation on the vehicle, it is possible to handle connected cars already on the road and those that will expand on the OEM level on the millions to tens of millions range.

Upstream has the following four security and analysis functionalities.
- Protocol Security
  Examines messages being passed between the vehicle and the telematics server. Validates protocol structure and determines if permitted commands are being transmitted.
- Transaction Analysis
  Analyzes communication patterns between the vehicle and server, and checks if any communication outside normal patterns is occurring, such as sudden massive communication bursts.
- Context Security
  Manages commands permitted to the vehicle (such as opening a door) depending on vehicle operation (if the vehicle is in motion or the engine is on) and detects contradictory GPS data (such as the vehicle being in two places at the same time).
- Behavior Detection
  Analyzes the vehicle and driver´ behavior patterns to determine if there is any anomaly.

[Integration with Karamba Carwall, SafeCAN]
By analyzing the logs from Karamba’s Carwall (ECU security) and SafeCAN (CAN Bus authentication security), that have won multiple connected car related awards, in real-time and integrating them with Upstream, it is possible to construct a more advanced security ecosystem for connected cars and the SOC.
By using Upstream, it is possible to manage a security ecosystem and provide services with driver and vehicle safety in mind with a connected car SOC.
Upstream sales will begin in May 2018, and the sales price is 10 Million Yen/1000 Vehicles/Year (tax excluded, additional initial installation fee necessary), and initial year sales projection is 200 Million Yen.

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