An Industry Milestone: VEDECOM Tech and Karamba Security Announce the First Commercial, Cyberhack-protected Autonomous Car

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and HOD HASHARON, Israel and VERSAILLES, France, June 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VEDECOM Tech, the European self-driving car company, has chosen Karamba Security, a provider of autonomous cybersecurity solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles, to protect its autonomous vehicles from cyberattacks.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3ba489d6-a2cd-4ec7-86af-2b4316b5914b

VEDECOM Tech is a commercial subsidiary of VEDECOM Public Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering innovation in autonomous transportation, and whose members include Renault, Peugeot and Valeo.

VEDECOM Tech is introducing completely autonomous, self-driving vehicles (SAE Level 5) that will be launched for commercial use in 2017 and 2018 by municipalities in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands. The company is using Karamba's Carwall and Autonomous Security software to protect the cars' electronic control units (ECUs) against risks of hacking.

This marks the industry's first production of cyberattack-secured, commercially-available automobiles.

"As we bring our first self-driving cars into production, we planned for cybersecurity technology to be part of the car's design. We evaluated the market extensively, and after serious consideration, concluded that Karamba Security's technology is the best way to prevent, not just detect, cyberthreats and keep passengers and cars safe," said Frederic Mathis, CEO and president of VEDECOM Tech.  "Karamba's Autonomous Security achieves that by autonomously hardening ECUs and preventing hacker infiltration with zero false positives. This approach uniquely prevents cyberattacks, and at the same time, satisfies the industry's intolerance to consumer safety risks, resulting from false alarms (aka 'false positives') that mistakenly block legitimate vehicle commands."

"We are excited to be the first cybersecurity company to have its technology adopted in commercially available cars," said Ami Dotan, Karamba Security CEO and co-founder. "VEDECOM Tech is a formidable partner, which has been successfully implementing state-of-the-art technologies that enable self-driving cars to become a reality. Protecting these autonomous and connected vehicles from cyberattacks is VEDECOM Tech's priority, and we are proud to enable this cyber protection."

VEDECOM is using YoGoKo's advanced communications solutions for its connected and cooperative autonomous vehicle. YoGoKo solutions enable vehicles to maintain internet connectivity and exchange data with other vehicles, road and urban infrastructure and cloud apps in a standardized way (ISO, CEN, ETSI standards), combining a diversity of access technologies (urban Wi-Fi, ITS-G5, cellular, LoRa, etc.).

By using state-of-the-art software and hardware security features to design its solutions, YoGoKo helps leverage risks and attacks coming from communication channels. YoGoKo brings a high level of trust to vehicular communications.

Moreover, communications security must be complemented with system-level security.  YoGoKo and Karamba work together to harden YoGoKo's externally-connected ECUs and safeguard the vehicles' advanced, connected communications systems against cyberattacks. This software security blocks malware and enforces authentication to provide trust in using self-driving capabilities and enforcing authorization policies that ensure data privacy.

VEDECOM Tech will provide a fleet of autonomous vehicles for the Autopilot Project. 
Autopilot Project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 731993.

VEDECOM Tech, YoGoKo and Karamba Security will showcase their partnership to protect VEDECOM's self-driving cars at booth number A10 during the 12th ITS European Congress, June 19 - 22, 2017 at the Strasbourg Convention Centre.

Carwall and Autonomous Security
Communications between vehicles and surrounding infrastructure certainly have the potential to improve driving safety and traffic management. These transmissions need to be highly secured, however, because malicious actors may target this intelligence to interfere with the car's critical components. A car's electronics system also needs protection because hackers may tamper with that as well.

Attackers try to inject malicious messages designed to modify a vehicle's behavior, either by a local or remote attack.

Karamba Security has responded to the challenges with Carwall and Autonomous Security, an approach that hardens the car's ECUs against hackers trying to take control of its safety systems, such as brakes and steering, for malicious purposes. Karamba safeguards the vehicle's electronics and entire system from being hacked by threat actors, and offers these advantages:

• A software solution that prevents cyberattacks with zero false positives, eliminating the risk of safety impacts
• No malware updates required
• Automatic policy generation with zero development efforts

Just last week, Karamba Security was awarded Best Auto Cybersecurity Product/Service of 2017 by TU-Automotive at its Detroit Conference and Exhibition. Karamba was selected in a unanimous decision by TU-chosen expert judges based on: Innovation, Industry Engagement, User Experience and Market Update.

Resources
Autonomous Security
Karamba Security Approach
Karamba Security FAQ

About Karamba Security
Karamba Security provides industry-leading autonomous cybersecurity solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles. Karamba's software products automatically harden the ECUs of connected and autonomous cars, preventing hackers from manipulating and compromising those ECUs and hacking into the car. Karamba's Autonomous Security prevents cyberattacks with zero false positives, no connectivity requirements and negligible performance impact. In one year, Karamba has received a total investment of $17 million. The company has been recognized in 2017 with TU-Automotive's Best Cybersecurity Product/Service and the North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Automotive New Product Innovation. More information is available at www.karambasecurity.com.

About VEDECOM Tech
VEDECOM was created in February 2014 and is an Institutes for Energy Transition (ITE), established as part of the French government's 'Investment for the future plan' (Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir or PIA). The Institute is dedicated to individual, carbon-free and sustainable mobility. More information is available at http://www.vedecom.fr/ite/?lang=en.

About YoGoKo
YoGoKo provides industry-leading communication solutions for the connected & cooperative vehicle. These innovative technologies enable secure and efficient internet communications, as well as direct communications between vehicles and the roadside infrastructure. It allows the transmission of information related to road safety and traffic efficiency. Additionally, it enables data collection and processing, fleet tracking and management, remote diagnosis, software over-the-air updates, internet access and other added-value applications and services.
More information is available at http://www.yogoko.com/.

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