Public Relations

Connected Car Security Product "Carwall" Protects Ficosa Telematics Control Unit and V2X ECU from Cyber-attacks
- Karamba and Ficosa partner for a safer future for smart mobility to face cyber-attacks -

December 18, 2018
Asgent, Inc.
（JASDAQ: 4288）

  Asgent, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4288, President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in providing network security, announces that its connected car security partner Karamba Security (CEO & Co-founder: Ami Dotan, located in Israel) has partnered with Ficosa, a top class global provider in the automotive and mobility sector, to strengthen Telematics Control Units (TCU) and protect vehicles from cyber-attacks when connecting to the internet.

  Ficosa selected Karamba's Carwall through the Open Innovation Program ^(*1) by Onboard Ventures, their venture partner. The reasons for this include the fact that it is not necessary to interrupt the TCU development process and it can integrate securely and seamlessly with the Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Karamba Carwall strengthens the ECU per the developers’ intentions and prevents in-memory cyber-attacks as well as autonomously preventing deviation from permitted factory settings. Karamba’s software implements Control Flow Integrity (CFI), which is embedded automatically in Ficosa's development process, not the source code, meaning there is essentially no effect on performance in runtime.
  For Ficosa, the ability to have a secure and robust ECU is a large differentiation point, and it is possible to provide a unique and automatically protected ECU. With Carwall, Ficosa is able to self-protecting ECU that definitively prevents cyber-attacks without false positives to their OEM customers, without the need for large investments in security updates and costly data analysis etc.

  Onboard Ventures (Ficosa International) Managing Director Edouard Rozan made the following comment on this partnership. "We are happy to offer hardened ECU's to our customers to prevent cyberattacks that target our products. As a manufacturer, we were impressed with Karamba's prevention solution, negligible overheads and seamless integration required. Karamba's Embedded Runtime Integrity technology is the best match, in terms of security and performance, to our needs for in-vehicle cybersecurity."
  Also, Karamba CEO Ami Dotan said, "We are excited to partner with Ficosa, a leading top-tier global provider, to harden their ECU's of choice. This successful relationship proves that Carwall-based hardening offers superior security with negligible performance impact and ease of integration that is unique to our patented technological approach to CFI. Working with Ficosa allows Karamba to secure the automotive industry future as it evolves to Smart Mobility."

  Karamba will be exhibiting state-of-the-art connected car security solutions at CES2019 (https://www.ces.tech/ Booth No.929). Also, in Japan, it is planned to exhibit at Automotive World in January 2019 with Asgent, where a hacking demo involving a minicar will be shown.

Automotive World
Held: January 16-18, 2019
Venue: Tokyo Big Sight
Official Site: https://www.automotiveworld.jp/

*1 Open Innovation Program
Innovation program to develop business models or new products/services by gathering ideas and new technology from external institutions, such as companies, university/research facilities, and entrepreneurs.

[Ficosa]
  A top-tier global provider devoted to the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of advanced technology vision, safety, connectivity, and efficiency systems for the motor and mobility sectors. Founded in 1949, with a head office located in Barcelona (Spain) and production centers, engineering centers and sales offices in 16 countries in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Has a team of more than 10,000 employees and more than 120.8 million Euros in consolidated net sales in 2017.

[Karamba]
  Karamba Security provides industry-leading cybersecurity solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles. The Carwall and SafeCAN autonomous IoT security products provide end-to-end in-vehicle security by authenticating communications, including OTA updates, with zero network overhead and by hardening the car´s safety ECUs from attempts to manipulate or compromise their commands and hack into the car. Together, the products prevent cyberattacks with zero false positives, no connectivity requirements and negligible performance impact. In the short two years since its inception, Karamba already has 17 engagements with OEM and Tier-1 providers. The company was recognized with TU-Automotive’s Best Cybersecurity Product/Service award and the Best Cybersecurity Product/Service award from North American Frost & Sullivan in 2017, and in May 2018 was recognized as a Cool Vendor by Gartner in IoT security, as well as receiving the Best Cybersecurity Product award from TU-Automotive in June two years running. https://www.karambasecurity.com/

※Company and product names are the trademarks or registered trademark of the respective companies.