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Are We Ready to Embrace Security?

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Sanjay Gupta, Vice President & India Country Manager, NXP

When internet was created, security was not kept in mind. And now, 20 years after its creation, we are thrown down the gauntlet with making it most reliable and secure – but that comes at a cost. According to a study by NASSCOM, the global cybersecurity market is expected to reach approximately USD 190 billion by 2025 from USD 85 billion, and will be driven primarily by the increasing digitization wave and smartphone penetration, leading to newer attack surfaces.
The automotive industry is rapidly evolving and the car is transformed from a simple mode of transport to a personalized mobile information hub. Until recently, cars have been isolated from their environment and from the internet, but the Connected Car will soon feature various wireless technologies like V2X communications, telematics, Near Field Communication (NFC) and multi-standard digital broadcast reception, complemented by ADAS systems that implement autonomous driving features.

Cyber attacks pose a threat to the dependability and security of the car - the hacker can possibly take control over the car - as well as to the privacy of the driver - the vehicle data can be used to build a profile of its user. Therefore, steps need to be taken now: the Connected Car must be secured, to ensure the correct functioning of all in vehicle systems, as well as user privacy. This implies a paradigm shift in the design of in vehicle electronics.

Traditionally, there has been a strong focus on safety, meaning that for example the brakes should function correctly under all circumstances. Safety will remain equally important in the future, but the increasing amount of electronics and software in vehicles will additionally require security, to protect the vehicle against hackers.

The Data Driven Era
With the proliferation in the number of devices, there will be one thing in common: data. We can consider data as the fuel to drive the IoT era. But these petabytes and zettabytes of data can also be a latent security nightmare for manufacturers,

infrastructure controllers as well as the end consumers. The question then arises, how can we trust the devices we use,the networks they connect to and the devices that they interact with? When security is not built in to the technology,your privacy is only granted at the discretion of whoever has your data. They must choose not to associate you with it. Privacy by choice is a very weak proposition of privacy.

Security Requires Keeping One Step Ahead With The Latest Cryptographic Techniques And Delivering The Best Security Solutions In Both Hardware And Software

We have another option - privacy by design - which is enabled through anonymous authentication and data security but it depends on a more sophisticated understanding of privacy and a deeper trust in technology. For example: a traffic service provider needs to know the speed and position of the car, and whether the data is authentic,i.e. coming from an actual car and not a hacked source. The traffic service provider should be able to perform these tasks without being able to figure out the car owner's name or even the car model.

The society has gotten accustomed to this data revolution very quickly. Data has become their addiction and they use it to deal with their daily issues. We all are a part of this data stimulated society and we perceive it for a long term use, from individuals to private citizens to organizations and governments everyone is intact, so our success depends not on hiding it but understanding it.

We should understand that privacy is a phenomenon, with diverse interpretations across communities, countries and cultures. Ideas of appropriateness vary widely,as do people's expectations of how their data should be used. This complicated concepts of universal ethics in dealing with data, and makes it much more crucial for governing bodies to craft regulations that carefully consider these sensibilities.

With technology being developed to make internet more reliable and secure, the NASSCOM report suggests that in next 10 years, the IT economy in India will be USD 350 billion, and 10 percent of that will be the cyber security pie. In this modern age where people cannot survive without reticulation and webbing, data plays an important role in their lives. This utility must be taken seriously and assuring security of the private information should be a priority. The automotive ecosystem- transportation and government, semiconductor companies, car OEMs,tier 1s, insurance companies,law makers and others - must collaborate to ensure that system level standardized approaches and privacy and security standards are adopted.

Security requires keeping one step ahead with the latest cryptographic techniques and delivering the best security solutions in both hardware and software. As more devices connect to the network, cloud and to each other, we are provided with new opportunities to make our lives easier, adding value with increased functionality and intelligent services. This connectivity requires more computing and security to ensure reliability, safety and quality. But the pieces of this technology puzzle are coming together in order to embrace the IoT sooner than expected.

Considering the security vulnerability, the question is, are we ready for it?

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