Automotive Consortium for Embedded Security

Today the DOJ’s Antitrust Division published a notice in the Federal Register (80 FR 24279) that the Southwest Research Institute—Cooperative Research Group on Automotive Consortium for Embedded Security (ACES) has filed paperwork seeking limited protection from federal antitrust regulations under provisions of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993 (15 USC Chapter 69).

Current members of the consortium are:

∙ Delphi Automotive Systems, LLC, Kokomo, IN;

∙ Denso International America, Inc., Southfield, MI;

∙ Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI;

∙ GM Global Technology Operations LLC, Detroit, MI;

∙ Honda R&D Americas, Inc., Raymond, OH; and

∙ Robert Bosch LLC, Farmington Hills, MI

The listed objectives of the ACES include:

∙ Perform high-risk/high-reward pre-competitive and non-competitive research and development;

∙ Serve as an independent verification and validation entity;

∙ Develop understanding of industry problems and associated risk;

∙ Monitor and share threats and industry research;

∙ Keep abreast of and provide input for emerging safety and security regulations and standards; and

∙ Provide members with relevant solutions and actionable results.

Commentary

With recent revelations of systemic security vulnerabilities in a number of automotive systems it is encouraging to see the industry take proactive measures to address these issues. While individual automotive companies could probably come up with adequate solutions to these cybersecurity problems, it makes much more sense for industry wide solutions to be developed and deployed. This is particularly true given the relatively small number of available cybersecurity experts available to work on control system issues in general.