PORTLAND, Ore.--()--Trusted Computing Group (TCG), an organization that develops open international industry standards, announced today that Toyota Motor Corporation joined the organization. Through its membership in TCG, Toyota plans to ensure greater security and achieve higher reliability of the dramatically expanding number of in-vehicle electronic systems and networks.
Just as in professional services, finance, manufacturing and utilities, reliability and security of auto electronics has become a key issue. The majority of cars sold in recent years have 50 to 100 powerful connected internal processors whose purposes range from ensuring safety to providing in-vehicle infotainment, device control, in-vehicle/inter-vehicle communication and communication for maintenance service.
"As stated in the January 2012 report published by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) Transportation Research Board*, automotive electronic devices are becoming more and more useful. If we can bring together the technical knowledge of our member companies, such as Toyota and others, I believe that greater security/reliability for high-precision automotive systems can be achieved, and that international standard specifications for realizing driver and passenger safety can be formulated,” noted Seigo Kotani, TCG director and Embedded Systems Work Group co-chair.
As with personal computers and conventional IT devices/networks, the automotive industry has been working to prevent incidental and malicious attacks, as well as prevent unauthorized access to related systems. TCG’s efforts will address:
- Establishing a secure authentication method for accessing the systems
- Ensuring consistency of data and system
- Protecting stored information
TCG has already developed and published many technologies/specifications based on the root-of-trust concept, such as Trusted Platform Module (TPM), Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) and Trusted Network Connect (TNC).
TCG established the Embedded Systems Work Group in 2011, and the work group is in the process of formulating specifications, etc., for embedded systems. Members are working to facilitate the integration of higher reliability and security of automobile control systems, such as remote maintenance system equipped with secure update mechanisms. These secure update mechanisms include accurately understanding the in-vehicle software and hardware situation remotely, confirming completion of intended software updates, and storing records of the related operations/work.
These technologies can also be applied to industrial equipment control, mobile communications and other various systems.
Through development of open industry standard specifications, the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) enables a safer computing environment for the entire platform and in remote locations. Trusted Computing is useful for protecting business-critical system and data, providing secure verification methods, reinforcing user ID protection, and ensuring machine ID and network authenticity. Trusted Computing is highly reliable, and organizations utilizing widely available internal hardware and applications can install or own it at a lower cost. Furthermore, TCG technology conforms to regulations for reliable hardware. For details regarding the above-mentioned information, specifications developed by TCG, work groups, etc., refer to the Trusted Computing Group website (www.trustedcomputinggroup.org). You can also follow TCG on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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* For details of the report, click here.