Volkswagen is looking to secure connected cars, cooperating with experts to create a cyber security company for the automotive industry.
CYMOTIVE Technologies, based in Israel and Germany, will develop security solutions for connected cars.
Yuval Diskin, former head of the Israeli Security Services, will be the chairman of CYMOTIVE Technologies.
It will also be led by cyber security professionals Tsafrir Kats and Dr Tamir Bechor.
It aims to address the security vulnerabilities of connected cars, which are gaining an increasingly prominent place in popular consciousness as the technology draws nearer.
At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek hacked into a Jeep Cherokee by sending false messages to the car’s internal network and overriding the correct ones. The hack allowed them to force the vehicle to turn sharply, speed up or brake suddenly.
It was a repeat of the duo’s infamous hack the previous year, when they managed to hack a jeep while a reporter from Wired was driving.
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Dr Volkmar Tanneberger, Head of Electrical and Electronic Development for the Volkswagen brand, said: “The car and the Internet are becoming increasingly integrated.
“To enable us to tackle the enormous challenges of the next decade, we need to expand our know-how in cyber security in order to systematically advance vehicle cyber security for our customers. CYMOTIVE Technologies provides an excellent platform for doing this. It is a long-term investment in cyber security to make vehicles and their ecosystem more secure.”
Yuval Diskin said: “The new cooperation will take an innovative and strategic approach to cyber security. Together with Volkswagen we are building a top-notch team of cyber security experts.
“We are aware of the significant technological challenges that will face us in the next years in dealing with the cyber security threats facing the connected car and the development of the autonomous car.”
