Secure Connected Vehicle Architecture for Software and Telecommunications

The advent of both new bidirectional communications capabilities and increasing levels of automation to offload driver workload is requiring the vehicle’s architecture to evolve substantially. Military vehicles of the US Armed Forces are subject to even greater cybersecurity threats. New vehicle hardware includes many sensors, cameras and other systems to capture road, weather and traffic conditions. These systems will be communicating the data both internally and externally from the vehicle. In addition, the vehicles will send and receive data via multiple communications protocols. Each of these communication protocols have unique capabilities and inherent weaknesses with regard to secure communications. With this vehicle evolution, and with the pervasive cyber threats, the vehicle will have to be architected for holistic vehicle cyber situational awareness. The US Army and US Marine Corps need to be fully versed and trained to recognize threats and effectively deal with them. In addition, satellite, cellular and WiFi systems not only communicate to and from the vehicle, but to the equipment installed for specific military purposes, as well as to the warfighter’s nomadic, or carried-in devices such cellphones, tablets, laptops and others.