GENIVI Alliance and FASTR Join Forces to Tackle Automotive Cybersecurity Challenges

The GENIVI Alliance, a collaborative community of automakers and their suppliers developing open software for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and the connected car, and Future of Automotive Security Technology Research (FASTR), a nonprofit research consortium dedicated to automotive cybersecurity, are joining forces as a single automotive security team to advance both organizations' efforts, interests and expertise in automotive cybersecurity.

The GENIVI Alliance, a collaborative community of automakers and their suppliers developing open software for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and the connected car, and Future of Automotive Security Technology Research (FASTR), a nonprofit research consortium dedicated to automotive cybersecurity, are joining forces as a single automotive security team to advance both organizations' efforts, interests and expertise in automotive cybersecurity.

The newly combined security activities will operate under the GENIVI Security Team. Together, the team will build upon the foundations both organizations have already established in the areas of threat modeling, secure software over-the-air updates and developing secure software.

"By combining strengths and areas of interest, GENIVI is augmenting its existing security-related efforts by leveraging FASTR's foundational research and deep understanding of emerging security technologies," said Steve Crumb, executive director, GENIVI Alliance. "I believe that our focus on writing secure code, coupled with the quality of research and experience of FASTR experts will result in easily adopted guidelines and approaches that bring great benefit to the automotive industry at large."

As vehicles become increasingly connected and software-powered, GENIVI and FASTR both recognized an emerging need for a comprehensive, end-to-end security model. The work of the combined security team will look at automotive cybersecurity holistically and deliver guidelines and research that helps stakeholders build, deliver and manage more secure vehicles in the future.

"Our common vision for rearchitecting the vehicle so that cybersecurity is at its very foundation helps drive safety and trust in tomorrow's connected and autonomous vehicles," said Joe Gullo, executive director, FASTR. "We are excited to unify our expertise and jointly work toward innovations in technology to achieve these goals."