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Trend Micro unveils dedicated security for electric vehicles
Thu, 16th Jun 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Connected cars provide plenty to entice threat actors, with more than 400 million predicted to be on the roads globally by 2025, according to Trend Micro.

The cybersecurity company has announced VicOne - dedicated security for the electric vehicles and connected cars of today and tomorrow.

"At Trend Micro, we are driven by the desire to secure the connected world. As we focus on this mission, it is imperative that we free ourselves to explore the various new business models that fit the new supply chain," says Eva Chen, CEO, and co-founder of Trend Micro.

"With VicOne, we anticipated an urgent OEM need for enhanced automotive cybersecurity. Built with the best of Trend Micro innovation, it will offer tremendous value to the industry."

Electric vehicles are increasingly exposed to remote digital threats across a range of new attack scenarios. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers must urgently build comprehensive cybersecurity protections into their ecosystem to comply with the new United Nations regulation, WP.29 (UN R155).

Vehicle security operations centres (SOCs) are a vital step for carmakers looking to comply with regulatory measures by offering enhanced threat detection and response for software-defined vehicles. VicOne's security operations centre integrates Microsoft Azure IoT services to collect telemetrics and other important security information from connected automobiles and uses Azure data services to analyse security threats and breaches.

"Cybersecurity is an integral part of the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem. Microsoft provides a comprehensive and open platform service with a zero-trust mindset, " says Soren Lau, general manager of Asia and EMEA, IoT Partner Solutions at Microsoft.

"We look forward to working with Trend Micro and VicOne to enable end-to-end security solutions for telematics and EVs through Microsoft Cloud and AI features within Azure IoT services."

Gartner also suggests the automotive industry should "partner with cybersecurity experts who can assess and propose a broad range of countermeasures. Be future-oriented and avoid doing the minimum to mitigate all threats listed by the regulation doing so will lead you to continually playing catch-up to keep pace with cybercriminals."

As part of these efforts, Trend Micro has formed a strategic partnership with MIH Consortium, an open EV platform alliance led by Foxconn, and has recently joined the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE) initiative, which aims to provide a cloud-native architecture for the development of software-defined vehicles. These moves cement Trend Micro's position at the heart of vehicle supply chains, as industry stakeholders invest more time and resources into cybersecurity compliance.

"The software-defined vehicle is the future of the global automotive industry and a driving force in accelerating the development of innovative automotive technology applications," adds Dipti Vachani, SVP and GM, Automotive and IoT Line of Business, Arm.

"By joining other leaders across the automotive industry as a new member of SOAFEE, VicOne is bringing important expertise in security standards to help ensure a safer future for the automotive industry."

VicOne will offer end-to-end security solutions for the automotive ecosystem, including the enablement of security by design, risk management, as well as threat detection and response. The combined power of a vehicle SOC, security over-the-air, in-vehicle security, penetration testing-as-a-service, and automotive vulnerability management will help analysts see more and respond faster to incidents.