Earlier this summer, Rambus and Movimento teamed up to demonstrate a joint OTA update solution at TU-Automotive in Detroit. Essentially, Movimento’s OTA technology uses Rambus’ CryptoManager platform to enable in-field provisioning of encrypted keys generated for a specific vehicle, thereby facilitating secure communication between cars and the Cloud.
“We tend to think of cars as mechanical [entities], but [modern vehicles] are actually very sophisticated,” Asaf Ashkenazi, senior director, product management for Rambus’ Security division, explained.
“So we need to make sure that we not only address today’s security challenges, but also those [that could occur] one or even five years from now.”
As Ashkenazi notes, most OTA solutions currently on the market offer limited functionality and lack personalization features.
“[For example], secure elements work fine for some purposes, but they aren’t enough for OTA vehicle updates. [Yes], they can get a key into a car, but without personalization, they end up using the same key in all vehicles,” he told the EE Times earlier this summer. “Alternatively, one can specify one key for each vehicle. But this requires automakers to implement the secure injection of keys at the manufacturing site. No personalization means that each vehicle has no unique key, which is critical in authenticating codes for software downloads.”
In contrast, says Ashkenazi, updates provided by Movimento and Rambus are delivered via one-time, single-use keys that are unique to each vehicle.
“Today we are using CryptoManager for over the air updates, but tomorrow we can use it for other solutions. Security is not new to us and we believe there is a real need for what we’re doing,” he added.
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