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Comtrade and Vidder Announce Strategic Partnership to Introduce Best-in-class Network Security to Automotive Industry
The companies unveiled a joint initiative to protect connected cars at the 2015 World Mobility Summit in Munich.
Munich, Germany, and Campbell, Calif. —Oct. 20, 2015—Comtrade’s Automotive Division, the leading provider of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), and Vidder Inc., the inventor of precision application access and a Gartner “Cool Vendor” in Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services, 2015 1, today announced a collaborative effort to protect connected cars by providing best-in-class network security to the automotive industry. The joint initiative takes mobile security to the next level, by combining Comtrade’s Mobility-as-a-Service solutions built on its expertise in software platforms, automotive protocols and backend technology, with Vidder’s PrecisionAccess, the industry-first secure connectivity solution that “shrinks” the perimeter to create a new layer of defense around individual applications and services.
As cars get progressively connected to the Internet, their attack surface expands exponentially. Yet, automobile OEMs are increasingly relying on this connectivity to offer critical services to car users, including Telematics Data Acquisition, Remote Command & Control, Over-The-Air Updates and Third-Party Application Access, among others.
Vidder’s groundbreaking technology gives auto OEMs complete control over who can connect to their services, regardless of location of the authorized automobiles and protected OEM services. Data in transit—occurring between the automobile and protected services typically residing in the cloud—is also protected. Together with intelligent traffic management and built-in geo-fencing, Vidder’s secure connectivity technology serves as a unique differentiator for auto OEMs in the connected car world. Vidder’s secure connectivity solution complements Comtrade’s long-standing expertise in security solution implementations, including the auto OEM’s connected car services based on robust threat models.
“Connectivity brings the convenience of the Internet and a wireless local area network (LAN) to drivers and passengers, but the multiple interfaces of a connected car can easily turn into a hackers’ paradise,” said Marko Javornik, VP/GM at Comtrade Automotive. “Recent successes in car hacking have led to massive automobile recalls. The threat is real, the breach is immediate, and dealing with the aftermath of the attack is costly.”
The Comtrade-Vidder initiative focuses on minimizing the downstream impact of car hacking. While small-scale hacking can be a nuisance, hijacking the car, by taking control of steering or braking, could lead to a life-and-death situation. This collaboration strengthens auto OEMs’ service access control and subsequently passenger safety by incorporating Vidder’s technology to protect a range of critical OEM services. PrecisionAccess defeats Denial-of-Service attacks, remote control spoofing, telemetry data hijacking, server vulnerability exploitation, and a long list of powerful cyberattack techniques.
“Today, Vidder PrecisionAccess is being used by global enterprises to protect cloud and premise-based applications,” said Anurag Dave, Director of Automotive & IoT Business Development at Vidder. “Through multiple global hackathons, Vidder PrecisionAccess has successfully defeated more than 5 billion attempted attacks. This is the solution we are bringing to the auto industry to protect connected cars and their passengers.”
“Comtrade is pleased to partner with Vidder, bringing the best-in-class network security from enterprise IT to automotive services,” Javornik added.
Comtrade Information Security executive, Tadej Vodopivec, is scheduled to speak on how to protect connected cars from being the “next big target for hackers” at a Connected & Autonomous Driving session on October 21.
1 Gartner, Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services, 2015, April 24, 2015
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