A consortium that includes Toyota and Nissan has been formed to protect connected cars from cyberattacks.
The consortium consists of 90 Japanese companies and also includes technology giants such as Microsoft Japan, Trend Micro, NTT Communications, Somp Japan Insurance, Denso, and Panasonic. These companies will check their automotive software for security flaws and share information, including cyberattack trends, to prevent hijacking and data theft, Nikkei Asia reports.
The partnership will extract automotive software flaws and update them once a week. Companies involved will then check to make sure the software they use is not among those detected to have security holes. In addition, members of the consortium will be provided with examples of hacking methods that are reported around the world.
Nikkei Asia reports that companies operating in the automotive sector typically spend 200 million to 300 million yen ($1.8 million to $2.7 million) a year to outsource software research. This consortium will prove particularly important for smaller companies and should improve the reliability of all Japanese cars.
As connected cars’ vital parts, such as their engines/electric motors and brakes, are electronically controlled, the software they use is vulnerable to cyberattacks and hacking. Valuable data can also be stolen.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe has already adopted guidelines that require car manufacturers to follow specific parameters while manufacturing connected cars. The Japanese government requires local carmakers to follow these UN guidelines.
