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A Novel Approach to Key Sharing

As keyless entry systems become ubiquitous, concerns about security are growing and gaining attention. Key sharing is one area that continues to present unique and significant challenges for car owners and manufacturers alike.

In the past year, we’ve seen ample stories about how the newest technological advancements are missing even the most basic of fundamental security features. Keyless entry systems are not immune to these vulnerabilities. This was demonstrated with recent revelations that Volkswagen has only about four unique keys used to service one hundred million vehicles sold over the last twenty years.

In October, the US Department of Transportation released security best practices to help car manufacturers combat cyber attacks. The implication is that car companies need to "identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover" from security threats in all elements of their vehicles, including their keyless entry systems.

TrustPoint Innovation Adds Another Layer of Security

TrustPoint Innovation offers a solution that combines the security of asymmetric cryptography with the convenience of NFC.

With ECC, secure authentication prevents any unauthorized access to the lock. The security technology used by TrustPoint Innovation is the same standards-based technology used by financial institutions and credit card companies and endorsed by the US Department of Transport (DOT), the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

With an operating range of less than 5cm, using NFC on a smartphone requires very close proximity to the vehicle to unlock the doors. This virtually eliminates any risk of a keyless entry style attack.

Get Your Free Copy of Our Latest Technical Paper

Interested in an in-depth look at the technology behind the solution? Our latest technical paper, "A Novel Approach to Digital Key Sharing for Vehicle Access Control," which was recently presented at the 23^rd Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Melbourne, Australia, is now available. Contact us today at [email protected] for a free copy of the paper or to learn how we can help put this solution to work for you.