Automotive News Canada - September 2022 - 4

4
* SEPTEMBER 2022
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
T
HE CARD READER ON
the fuel pump, toll tag on
the windshield and even
newfangled apps to pay for
parking or an electric-vehicle
charge may soon go
the way of the credit card
imprinter.
Outfitted with the necessary
sensors, software and
communicative hardware, connected
vehicles will soon be
functioning as rolling
wallets, streamlining
many of the simple
but nagging payments
that add " friction "
to the car-owning
experience, said
Peter Virk, vice-president
of product and
ecosystem for IVY,
BlackBerry Ltd.'s connected-vehicle
platform.
As
with tap functionality
for credit
cards and contactless
payments via smartphones,
" when something
works and it
becomes sticky, then
it's hard to live without, "
Virk said.
Virk: BlackBerry's
IVY
platform aims
to make
payments
easier but also
to " ultimately
reduce fraud. "
SUPPLIED PHOTO
Having vehicles send signals to authorize
fuel pumps or automatically pay for
parking will save drivers time, but cybersecurity
experts warn that vehicle-based
mobile wallets come with their own set
of risks.
" For a general user, I can see the
attraction and convenience of it - not
being confused with the station or how
to pay or any other situation, " said Mitra
Mirhassani, co-director of the SHIELD
Automotive Cybersecurity Centre of
Excellence at the University of Windsor
in southwestern Ontario.
A TREND WITH RISKS
But as vehicle-based wallets are given
greater latitude to make payments,
Mirhassani said, automakers and service
providers need to take stock of the
cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CYBERSECURITY
SPOTLIGHT
" I would prefer
not to have a
car that is connected
to anything, "
she said,
" but it's a trend
in the market.
You sometimes don't have any way
around it. "
Vehicle-based payments are an emerging
area, and many in the auto sector are
still working through the basics, said AJ
Khan, CEO of the automotive cybersecurity
company Vehiqilla Inc.
Early steps include establishing how
sensitive payment information is stored,
whether payments will be made through
the vehicle itself or smartphone apps,
and how potential breaches will be handled,
Khan said.
Real-time monitoring is needed, he
said, because unlike with a lost credit
card, mobile-wallet users may not know
they have been compromised.
" If your vehicle and your third-party
apps are being monitored for any such
thing, then you'll be notified, " he said.
" Attention is the first part toward prevention. "
Khan,
who is also the director
of the Institute of Automotive
Cybersecurity within the Automotive
Parts Manufacturers' Association, pointed
to Ford Motor Co. as being one of the
automakers that have taken some early
strides in the space.
In 2016, Ford launched an app-based
mobile wallet known as FordPay. The
company did not respond to request for
comment about the current state of the
payment solution.
BlackBerry, meantime, is ramping up
work on IVY. The platform is not on the
road today, Virk said, but the Waterloo,
Ont,-based tech company is collaborating
with several unidentified automakers
and Tier 1 parts suppliers to integrate
IVY into next-generation vehicles.
Vehicle-based payments are just
one part of the cloud-based IVY platform,
which is being co-developed by
BlackBerry and Amazon Web Services.
The platform, an example of what is
known as middleware, processes data
transmitted by vehicle sensors and connects
it with independent product or service
providers running on the IVY " ecosystem. "
On
the payment end, financial technology
company Car IQ Inc. is working
with BlackBerry to enable vehicles
to autonomously pay for fuel, tolls and
parking, among other expenses. When
run through IVY, the solution creates
what the companies describe as a " digital
fingerprint " for vehicles, allowing
them to connect to banking networks,
validate spending and autonomously
make payments.
DOLLARS AND SENSORS
ple.
Topping up the fuel tank is one examUnlike
a driver manually punching
in a credit card personal identification
number at the pump, authentication on
IVY is carried out by vehicle sensors,
Virk said.
I would prefer not to have a car
that is connected to anything,
but it's a trend in the market.
You sometimes don't have any
way around it.
MITRA MIRHASSANI
SHIELD Automotive Cybersecurity
Centre of Excellence
Constantly self-aware, the vehicle will
know it has pulled into a filling station,
know what level of fuel it has and know
who is driving.
With the driver authenticated via
cameras or radar and with other parameters
met, the vehicle can authorize the
pump, Virk said.
Similar safeguards are in place for
tolls, parking and EV charging, he said,
blocking payment when the details do
not add up.
" What we want to do with IVY is use
all the data touch points in the vehicle
to help join these together so it becomes
easier to make a payment, " Virk said.
Khan: Unlike
credit cards,
mobile
wallets can be
compromised
without the
user knowing,
hence the need
for real-time
monitoring.
FILE PHOTO
" But it has traceability...
so we can ultimately
reduce fraud. "
This focus on
security extends
throughout the software
layers of IVY
and into the automaker-made
hardware
on which the
platform runs, Virk
said. While the Ivy
team is not involved
in hardware, he said,
BlackBerry ensures
its partners meet
minimum hardware
requirements so both
service providers on
the Ivy ecosystem
and users remain
" safe and secure. "
AN INDUSTRY DISCONNECT
Mirhassani, however, is skeptical that
automakers and parts suppliers are truly
prepared for the connected era. The expert
in hardware security said the sector needs
to enhance its cybersecurity protocols for
all parts going into North American vehicles,
all the way down to detecting " trojan
horse " [malware] in the basic electronics
of many components.
" We not only need ways to design our
circuits with methods that constantly
monitor the behaviour of that hardware
to make sure it behaves, " Mirhassani
said, " we also have to develop policies of
manufacturing when we deal with overseas
and the logistics and supply chain
with our partners in Asia. "
Until automakers and parts suppliers
take the proper steps, she said, " none of
the hardware is safe. " - ANC
Connected
vehicles are
becoming
four-wheeled
wallets, but
security risks
need to be
ironed out
CREDIT CAR
A NEW WAY
CREDIT CAR
TO PAY:
ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF MELNYCHUK/AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA
Automotive News Canada - September 2022

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