WISeKey Signs Strategic Cooperation with European bright box to Add Cyber Protection to Smart Cars

WISeKey, a World Leading Swiss based cyber security company and bright box LLC, a global connected car vendor specialized in developing tech solutions for the auto industry, announced at the Geneva Auto Show, a strategic alliance to include cybersecurity protection technology to bright box’s solutions allowing clients to remotely control vehicle functions such as climate control and locks via their mobile phone and to receive information such as the vehicle’s location.

Bright box took off in 2012 with the launch of Dealer Mobility, a mobile app facilitating interaction between car dealers and their clients. This was followed by Remoto, which the company began working on in mid-2013. Both projects have received a Russian Startup Rating of “AAA”.

All new cars on the market today include wireless technologies that could pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions as current systems and data security remain largely unprotected. Smart cars without cybersecurity protection technology could allow hackers to gain remote access by exploiting vulnerabilities in their connected ecosystem. While the number of cars connected to the internet keeps growing quickly, (to over a quarter of a billion by year 2020, as estimated by Gartner) smart car manufacturers are working to identify and reduce potential hacking vulnerabilities in their vehicles.

Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s founder and CEO said, “We are delighted to partner with bright box and support a company whose business is aimed at improving people’s lives. Bright box, and its product Remoto, have managed to solve a problem faced by millions of drivers, and unlike its competitors, bright box has done it cheaply and for the mass market. The company has every chance of becoming a leading supplier for many of the leading car manufacturers.

“As cars continue to evolve, essentially they become giant computers on wheels, and they are vulnerable to the very same threats and attacks as home computers, laptops and smartphones. Hackers can easily access the vehicle’s computer system, manipulate the brakes, engine, and transmission, using laptops from their living room. Our technology is designed to secure and protect identity and avoid malicious hacking.”

WISeKey is currently deploying several large IoT Cybersecurity projects and is working with car manufacturers to apply its technology to cars to strengthen their Digital Identification of both drivers and smart car operating systems, and digitally sign and encrypt the information these cars are sending to Trusted Clouds. The concept is to allow cars to be accessible only via secure identity that can be stored on apps or wearables (see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyKfPOYwws).

WISeKey’s solution reduces potential security threats by:

• Embedding digital certificates, using WISeKey’s Public Key Infrastructure and OISTE’s Global Rootkey into NFC Trusted®tags, which can be installed and connected to existing advanced driver assistance systems and car operating systems.
• Providing a Digital Certificate to authenticate each sensor installed inside a smart car.
• Protecting driver’s personal data as smart cars collect massive amounts of data and essentially know everything about the driver’s personal behavior and movements, which is much similar to current smartphones.

“We are pleased to collaborate with such a significant partner to improve security technology in our connected car platform. This partnership offers strong support for our business and strengthens bright box’s company position in the automotive industry. The Remoto solution with the potential strong cybersecurity protection enables car manufacturers to provide their customers highly secured connected cars and furthermore to increase driver’s confidence,” said Robert Schuessler, VP of bright box.

About WISeKey

WISeKey is a leading information cybersecurity and identity Management Company, a Global growth Company partner of the World Economic Forum, providing specialized technologies for data protection, effective identification and authentication of people or objects to ensure secured communications and transactions without compromising trust. More information onwww.wisekey.com and find out more on www.wisekey.com/media-corner

WISeKey Social Media accounts Twitter @wisekey, Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram

About bright box

bright box LLC (www.bright-box.eu) is a European corporation that is specialized in solutions and platforms in the connected car sector. Its headquarters are in Vienna and the developers work primarily in Eastern Europe. The bright box management team has many years’ experience with software systems in the automotive sector.

In essence, bright box offers two products. The first is Remoto, a connected car platform for automobile manufacturers, and the second is Dealer Mobility, a customer app solution for automobile manufacturers. With Remoto, bright box delivers a turnkey connected car platform from one source which comprises all components that an automobile manufacturer needs: a certified Telematic Control Unit (TCU) to be installed in the vehicles, a web-based control panel and a customer app for the vehicle’s owner to control and track it remotely.