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57 into a vehicle-to-vehicle communications network via a ‘man in the middle’ attack, for example, where a hacker replicates another vehicle to divert an autonomous car, to viruses and Trojans that can render a system unusable if a ransom is not paid. There is also the risk of physical ‘hacking’ that aims to confuse autonomous systems by changing the physical environment. With driverless cars using lane departure warning as a key control mechanism, one risk that has been highlighted by an automotive equipment supplier is a hacker who directs a vehicle into oncoming traffic, leading to a crash. Consideration of issues like these has led to the formation of a strategic cyber security collaboration group for connected vehicles in the UK to investigate and define security best practices, including how the vehicles communicate with each other, with people and transport infrastructure. Countering the threat The group brings together the Motor Industry Research Association organisation (MIRA), which has wide experience of vehicle safety and testing as well as autonomous and connected vehicles (see Dossier, page 62) and Plextek Consulting, a specialist in automotive product and systems design. The third member of the group, Intercede, is perhaps unexpected, as it is an identity security specialist with experience in the UK and US of managing employee credentials for large organisations. Its MyID software enables operators to create and use trusted digital identities for autonomous systems using secure ‘identity agents’ rather than passwords. These new capabilities are necessary because the potential threat of cyber attacks is broad, ranging from the opportunist hacker to malware developers and terrorists. This year will see cyber attacks and the threat to vehicle comms systems and driverless cars being considered by developers as part of the essential safety protection of vehicles in the same way as functional safety and physical threats are now. Furthermore, ‘in- car vulnerabilities’ need to be addressed urgently as there is potential for massive exposure of autonomous systems to threats via mobile phone technologies, onboard diagnostics ports and poorly disciplined interactions between different pieces of software. Drawing on expertise from other industries and sectors such as IT and the military, along with more industry investment, will help deliver better system protection and ensure that the connected vehicle – especially the autonomous connected vehicle – is safe enough for widespread use in the public sector in the near future, say leading developers. This is why the design process for all connected vehicles has to be more rigorous and itself provide an improved method of reviewing the process so that both the cyber security and reputation of the autonomous car developers will be enhanced. To tackle these issues, the cyber security group will also explore how a secure connected environment can improve the efficiency of transport Security and safety systems | Insight Unmanned Systems Technology | Spring 2015 Mapping the functions of a UAV onto intelligent safety agent (top), and what that means for the functions of the code being developed, above (Courtesy of University of Liverpool) New capabilities are necessary because the potential threat of cyber attacks is broad, from hackers, malware developers as well as terrorists