McAfee, Panasonic partner to protect connected vehicles from cyber-attacks

San Jose, California headquartered device-to-cloud cybersecurity company McAfee has partnered with Japanese technology giant Panasonic Corporation to protect connected vehicles around the world from cyber-attacks.

Under the engagement, a statement said, the companies will set up a Vehicle Security Operation Center (Vehicle SOC) aimed at offering vehicle security monitoring services.

The unit will work towards detecting and addressing cybersecurity threats on time and contributing to the development of a safe and secure mobility society, the statement said.

McAfee said the data related to an attack or security threat will be gathered by Panasonic’s Automotive Intrusion Detection System. It will be mounted on top vehicles to detect an attack, its type and transmit all that information to the vehicle SOC.

Following this, a Security Information and Event Management System will analyze and visualize the gathered information, prompting the companies to take the necessary steps to mitigate the threat.

Panasonic has already been running SOCs to protect systems and networks managing factory equipment and production processes, while McAfee bring the expertise of supporting numerous SOCs and Managed Security Services (MSSs). The two will jointly drive the vehicle SOC to boost cybersecurity measures in the auto industry, which has been witnessing a revolution with the rise of connected and self-driving vehicles.  

According to a USwitch study, published in June 2020, cybersecurity incidents against connected cars have increased 99% since 2018.  

With tens of millions of lines of code, these vehicles can produce up to 25GB of data every hour, including information about the driver, the vehicle and passengers, making a lucrative target for attackers, the same report said. 

Read: IT supply chain, digital home attacks likely to increase in 2021: McAfee 

Prior to this, Panasonic had also partnered with Trend Micro to develop solutions that could prevent cyber-attacks against autonomous and connected cars. The company operates 528 subsidiaries and 72 associated companies worldwide.  

In India, it employs about 12,500 people with regional headquarters located in Gurugram.