Happy Monday, readers.
Let’s talk about Keysight Technologies, Inc., Autotalks, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) solutions.
Keysight, in the company’s own words, “delivers market-leading, software-centric design, emulation, and test environments that support faster development and deployment with fewer risks throughout the product life cycle.” We’ve featured Keysight in a few Internet of Things-related articles over the last year, or so. Keysight partnered with Synopsis to provide IoT device manufacturers with a strong cybersecurity assessment solution that can protect consumers when devices are shipped to market. Also, Keysight was selected as the official test partner for the Deutsche Telekom Satellite NB-IoT Early Adopter Program, which provides an end-to-end NB-IoT non-terrestrial network (NTN) testbed, further enabling engineers and developers to validate reference designs for solutions using 3GPP Release 17 (Rel-17) NTN standards. Learn more here.
Autotalks, then, is an Israel-based fabless semiconductor company devoted to V2X innovation for both manned and autonomous vehicles. Founded back in 2008, Autotalks’ 2nd generation chipsets deliver, quote, “the highest performance and reliability, and are deployed in numerous exciting connectivity and autonomous-driving projects driven by OEMs worldwide.” Automotive IoT is a very important vertical for Autotalks; today, the 3rd generation chipset it’s launched is reportedly “the only chip supporting 5G-V2X communication, paving the future path for V2X by uniquely enabling automated braking.” A world with fewer accidents and life-saving connectivity between all vehicles and road users is the Autotalks M.O. as it leads what some have dubbed “the V2X cooperative safety revolution.”
So, there’s some background info related to news that dropped late last week:
Keysight announced that its device security research lab, Riscure Security Solutions, successfully worked with Autotalks to test the security of a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication solution under the Common Criteria certification program. According to the announcement itself, this achievement marks “the first V2X chipset with an embedded hardware security module to receive Common Criteria certification.”
For context, V2X solutions are gaining traction (slight driving pun, intended) among vehicle and road equipment manufacturers; they aren’t the only ones, though. Certain government bodies have also taken interest, especially when it comes to proper security and overall reliability for consumers. In that vein, the V2X protection profile within the Common Criteria methodology is, quote, “expected to become one of the first standards promoted to the EU Cybersecurity Certification framework” in accordance with the EU Cyber Resilience Act (within the EUCC framework). Thus, to comply, manufacturers must rigorously test their V2X solutions against the most advanced security standards, anticipating future requirements.
So, as mentioned, Keysight did precisely that — Autotalks’ SECTON/CRATON2 embedded V2X Hardware Security Module (HSM) was tested under the Common Criteria standard to address the need for secure communication between various technologies in the V2X ecosystem.
The security testing was successful, and the official certification proved that the necessary security mechanisms are, indeed, in place (i.e. to avoid tampering with such V2X communications). By expanding this V2X due diligence for the automotive industry (Autotalks being representative of that), Keysight continues to prove its expertise in functional testing.
“This project with Autotalks is the first to combine Keysight’s extensive expertise in both functional and security testing for the automotive industry,” explained Thomas Goetzl, Vice President and General Manager of Keysight Automotive and Energy Solutions. “Keysight and Autotalks will continue to work with the latest 3rd generation chipset, realizing its strategic direction to ensure adherence with the latest functional and security requirements.”