Trend Micro Pushes for Automotive Cybersecurity Awareness With VicOne at DECODE 2024: Fusion Forward

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Amidst the more ingenious cybersecurity attacks that have been occurring over the last couple of months, leading cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has been working to adapt its training modules and systems to combat the threats that these entail. With the increasing number of electric vehicle (EV) users in the country, one of these potential threats comes in the form of car hacking.

Since EVs and advanced car infotainment systems are relatively new in the Philippines, Trend Micro wants to stay one step ahead of threat actors by providing local cybersecurity professionals with a demonstration and dedicated module on the potential risks these new technologies possess. Registered participants at DECODE 2024: Fusion Forward, this year’s edition of Trend Micro’s annual free-for-all conference, can look forward to a session titled “Automotive Cybersecurity: Defending Against Car Hacking,” which will feature a live demonstration from its partner in automotive cybersecurity, VicOne.

“Trend Micro has never done a demonstration like this at DECODE before,” shares Alma Saturnino-Alvarez, Threat Hunting Director of Trend Micro. “In line with our theme, Fusion Forward, we want to recognize that technologies are continuously evolving and threat actors are also finding new ways to maximize these technologies for their gain. The VicOne session will be a great opportunity for more professionals in the country to have an awareness of the potential threats to vehicle systems, and to make the necessary preparations to safeguard their respective organizations.” The session will be facilitated by Jonathan Jay Turla, a principal researcher at VicOne, a Trend Micro subsidiary focused on automotive cybersecurity solutions, and aims to educate attendees on how to protect vehicles from attacks on radio frequency (RF) and infotainment systems. In exposing attendees to the possible threats and the ways to mitigate vulnerabilities, the session will also serve as an opportunity for consumers looking to purchase EVs to have a better awareness of their security.

The demonstration will feature three main segments. Two of these will highlight RF attacks by showing how jam and replay attacks on a vehicle keyless system can lead to car theft. The third segment will tackle infotainment attacks by showing how the use of a flash drive to execute code on an infotainment system can enable hackers to modify settings and access call records and users’ location history.

Other key points that will be discussed include the crucial need for the public to understand the ramifications of car hacking. These can include instances of criminals stealing GPS coordinate data, tracking driving patterns or behaviors, and abusing users’ data for further cases of fraud, such as selling stolen data in the underground, identity theft, delivery scams, or other sorts of illegal activities involving cars.

With the session, Trend Micro hopes to better prepare the community for the advancement and electrification of the transportation system and highlight the value of protecting the overall automotive ecosystem — from the vehicle itself, car data and telematics, the car’s functionalities, up to the charging station.

DECODE 2024: Fusion Forward is just one of the many initiatives under Trend Micro’s mission statement of being #EngineeredToDoGood. To access free resources and more information about cybersecurity for professionals and non-professionals alike, visit Trend Micro’s official website at www.TrendMicro.com and its official Facebook Page.