Digital Twins in Cyber Security Analysis of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (DTCS-CAV)

Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology plays a significant role in the exciting transportation revolution today in the UK, offering road safety, high efficiency, less emission and a better user experience. For keeping the UK's world-class research base of CAVs, the government and industry invested £440m into more than 90 projects involving over 200 organisations. As a result, the UK industry could be worth £62bn by 2035, 40% of the entire automotive industry.

CAVs are considered "data centres on wheels". More than 100 electronic control units (ECUs) for different functions are controlled and managed by various software; the digitisation of CAVs brings new challenges than the conventional one-off security audits of automotive security. The traditional cyber security approaches are no longer appropriate for new challenges because they are changing and moving fast. In this project, we proposed Digital twins as a cyber security analysis tool, which is qualified for realising a holistic approach to the cyber-physical system security of CAVs.

Digitisation in the automotive industry, especially in connected and autonomous vehicles, makes the cyber security of CAVs focus on a topic for vehicle software management. Several international regulatory bodies are currently working on the security guidelines of CAVs. The benefits of autonomous systems have been explored extensively and continue to be developed. However, this rapid advancement has come somewhat unchecked. At the same time, vehicles are controlled by different software with increasing autonomous functions such as driverless. However, understanding the most lavish threat landscapes and the attack surfaces is limited. The OEMs must establish processes and systems following the new cyber security requirements as quickly as possible for the industry sectors. "Digital Twin" can provide significant support in this area. This proposal will ensure we secure the new function delivered by OEMs in CAVs. This proposal complements the Hub and Nodes' work by bringing in expertise from digital twins, coupled with cyber security; examining the knowledge and departments in the Hub and Nodes show none from economics. The proposal has touchpoints with the Security, Trust and Resilience nodes.