Infineon & Elektrobit Deliver Next‑Gen Security for Connected Cars

Market Overview

Modern vehicles increasingly rely on frequent over‑the‑air software updates and a dense network of on‑board sensors. As Bob Emmerson notes, this complexity demands robust security solutions to shield against unauthorised external access.

The Challenge

Designing a unified hardware‑software architecture that boosts on‑board communication performance while meeting evolving security mandates is a key hurdle for automotive developers.

Key Players

Infineon Technologies – a global leader in semiconductor solutions. Elektrobit – a worldwide supplier of embedded and connected software tailored to the automotive sector.

The Solution

Infineon’s AURIX™ platform equips automotive developers with a single microcontroller that controls powertrain, body, safety, and advanced driver‑assist systems. Each AURIX unit houses an embedded hardware security module (HSM) that securely generates, stores, and manages cryptographic keys.

The HSMs implement hardware‑based symmetric and asymmetric encryption, dramatically enhancing protection against tampering while delivering a speed advantage—hash calculations run approximately 150× faster than purely software solutions.

Secure boot is critical: each control unit must authenticate and verify its memory contents within a very tight time window. Elektrobit’s software stack, finely tuned for AURIX and its HSM, achieves a record‑breaking performance of 1 MB of data verified in just 16.2 ms—2.5× faster than prior benchmarks.

Business Benefits

• Hardware‑centric software leverages built‑in security features of the microcontroller.
• Parallel execution of cryptographic tasks accelerates overall system performance.
• Supports up to 100 signature verifications per second, enabling real‑time authentication for critical vehicle functions.

Author: Bob Emmerson, freelance IoT writer