Building a Security Defense Line for Connected Vehicles:
Tackling the Needs, Challenges, and Comprehensive Solutions for Automotive Cybersecurity Regulations
As modern vehicles move towards 'Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV)', autonomous driving, and smart connectivity, they are no longer just transportation tools, but mobile giant data centers and IoT terminals. However, this also makes vehicles new targets for hacker attacks. Whether it's remote hijacking of vehicle control, stealing user privacy, or implanting malicious software via OTA upgrades, cybersecurity threats are now directly linked to personal safety.
Strict Global Automotive Industry Regulations
To address this challenge, the global automotive industry has successively introduced strict cybersecurity regulations, turning security compliance from an option into a necessity:
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UNECE R155
Mandatory regulations in markets such as the EU require automakers to obtain a Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS) and Type Approval before they can sell their vehicles.
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ISO/SAE 21434
As the technical support for R155, it is the authoritative technical standard for cybersecurity engineering in the global automotive supply chain.
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EU CRA (Cyber Resilience Act)
Expands jurisdiction to the general security of all products with digital elements, penetrating and impacting the automotive supply chain.
For OEMs and the supply chain (Tier 1/Tier 2), how to meet these cybersecurity regulations is currently the most urgent operational and R&D issue. Below, we will analyze their core needs and challenges, and combine Jotactic's cutting-edge product matrix to provide a one-stop, comprehensive security solution.
Tackling Automotive Cybersecurity: Core Needs and Challenges Faced
To implement automotive cybersecurity regulations, enterprises typically face the following four major challenges in their R&D and operational processes.
Full-Lifecycle 'TARA Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment' and Traceability
ISO/SAE 21434 requires TARA (Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment) to be conducted in the early stages of development, identifying assets, threat scenarios, attack paths, and assessing risk levels. Subsequently, Cybersecurity Goals and requirements must be seamlessly decomposed into software and hardware design. Ensuring strict bidirectional traceability between TARA analysis results, security requirements, code implementation, and security testing, while coping with dynamic change management, is a huge management pain point.
Integration of Underlying Hardware Root of Trust and Cryptographic Software
Cybersecurity cannot rely solely on upper-layer application software; defenses must be built from the chip and underlying architecture. Systems need to implement Secure Boot, Secure Communication (SecOC), firmware encryption, and credential management. This requires highly complex integration and configuration of underlying software with Hardware Security Modules (HSM). For traditional automotive electronics teams lacking experience in security cryptography, the technical threshold is extremely high.
Dynamic Defense Mechanisms against Software Vulnerabilities and In-Vehicle Networks
Vulnerabilities in in-vehicle operating systems (e.g., Adaptive AUTOSAR, Automotive Linux) and third-party open-source software are constantly emerging. Regulations require products to have a security maintenance period lasting several years (CRA also has this requirement). How to eliminate known vulnerabilities during the development phase and intercept abnormal in-vehicle bus (CAN/Ethernet) communications in real-time while the system is running poses a tremendous technical challenge.
Stringent Security Vulnerability Discovery and Penetration Testing
R155 and ISO/SAE 21434 explicitly require cybersecurity validation and testing, including traditional structured testing, Fuzz Testing, as well as vulnerability discovery and Penetration Testing. How to safely, automatically, and efficiently inject various cyber-attack behaviors into virtual or physical ECU environments and produce compliance reports is a major bottleneck faced by testing teams.
Comprehensive Automotive Cybersecurity Solutions
In response to the severe challenges posed by cybersecurity, Jotactic has integrated the world's top R&D management, embedded security architectures, static defenses, and dynamic network testing tools.
Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS) and TARA Full-Process Traceability
Polarion ALM provides compliance project templates specifically designed for ISO/SAE 21434 and R155. It digitizes the TARA analysis process, allowing teams to conduct asset identification and threat assessment on a unified platform, and directly link the assessed security requirements to software and hardware architecture designs. Polarion's powerful workflow and configuration management ensure full-chain bidirectional traceability from 'TARA Assessment ➔ Security Requirements ➔ Source Code ➔ Security Test Cases ➔ Penetration Test Reports', serving as a core tool for automakers to successfully pass CSMS audits.
Chip-Level Hardware Root of Trust and Commercial-Grade AUTOSAR Security Components (Solving the 'Underlying Protection' Challenge)
The underlying core of cybersecurity lies in cryptography and the establishment of a Root of Trust:
- EB zentur: A firmware solution designed specifically for Hardware Security Modules (HSM). It acts as the vehicle's 'Hardware Root of Trust', isolated from the chip hardware, responsible for managing cryptographic keys, executing Secure Boot, Secure Flash, and highly protected encryption/decryption operations.
- EB tresos / EB corbos: In classic and next-generation AUTOSAR basic software, built-in comprehensive security modules (e.g., CSM Cryptographic Service, SecOC Secure Onboard Communication, IdsM Intrusion Detection System Management) perfectly intercept forged control commands, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of in-vehicle network communications.
High-Defense Military-Grade Operating Systems and Secure Compilation (Solving the 'Software Vulnerability and Architecture Isolation' Challenge)
INTEGRITY RTOS: The world's first real-time operating system certified to high security levels, utilizing microkernel and space/time partitioning technologies. Even if peripheral software like the in-vehicle entertainment system is compromised due to vulnerabilities, INTEGRITY can build an iron wall, completely isolating the threat and preventing hackers from cross-domain penetration into core safety ECUs such as powertrain and steering.
- GHS Multi IDE & PClint: During the code implementation phase, through rigorous static analysis, comprehensively detects and eliminates potential software vulnerabilities (e.g., memory overflows, pointer errors) that are easily exploited by hackers early in the compilation process, complying with the CRA's source management requirement for 'Security by Default'.
In-Vehicle Network Intrusion Detection and Automated Security Testing (Solving the 'Validation and Penetration Testing' Challenge)
TOSUN TSMaster: As a powerful in-vehicle bus (CAN/LIN/Ethernet) analysis and simulation platform, TSMaster supports custom script development, which can be used to build automated bus penetration testing and intrusion simulation. By simulating common Replay Attacks, DoS Denial-of-Service attacks, or malicious diagnostic command injections, it verifies whether the ECU's SecOC and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) mechanisms are functioning properly.
Automotive Cybersecurity is not a single product, but a complete defense system that runs all the way from the requirements phase to post-sale vulnerability tracking.
Jotactic has a professional automotive electronics and software engineering technical team. We not only introduce global automotive-grade cutting-edge security tools like Siemens, Elektrobit, Green Hills Software, and TOSUN for you, but also possess multi-toolchain integration and customized configuration capabilities. Whether it is assisting you in establishing process systems compliant with R155/ISO 21434, or seamlessly integrating HSM encryption technology (EB zentur) into your ECU development, Jotactic is your most trusted strategic partner, helping you safely and quickly navigate the global market in the smart automotive era of the Internet of Everything.