Developing Platform to Protect ECU from External Attacks
Technical Capabilities Recognized by Global Accelerators

Germany's automotive association ADAC announced the results of testing 24 automobiles produced and sold by 19 global automakers, finding that most vehicles were vulnerable to hacking. The method involves manipulating and amplifying radio frequencies within the vehicle to hack the engine or door lock, tricking sensors into thinking the car owner is nearby.

As increasingly more electronic equipment is being introduced into automobiles, exposure to external hacking risks is growing, and interest in automotive security is rising.

Pescaro is a domestic automotive security startup established by automotive security module developers from Hyundai Motor and security experts from white hacker backgrounds.

In autonomous vehicles, security can be defined across three domains: vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, and in-vehicle network domains. Pescaro has focused on in-vehicle security, which is both urgent and globally competitive.

The first product to be launched is FESCARO HSM, technology that safely protects ECUs from external attacks. It has been platformized to be applicable to various ECU environments. Since security functions are implemented in software, it can be deployed immediately in commercial vehicles without hardware modifications.

The second is FESCARO CAN, technology that protects communication channels between ECUs, with a prototype released last April. It detects and blocks abnormal packet inflow in the CAN communication bus in real-time. It is embedded software that can be applied directly to all ECUs.

Having gained recognition for its technical capabilities, the company received investment from SparkLabs, a global startup accelerator. In the second half of this year, models with HSM-based ECU Tuning Protection technology are scheduled to be launched in mass production with global automakers.

Hong Seok-min, CEO of Pescaro, stated: "The characteristic of all our solutions is that they are implemented based on semiconductors. Although we have released them in software due to current production capacity limitations, our goal is to implement them at the semiconductor level through partnerships with capable partners."