IEEE Standards Association Honors OnBoard Security CTO with International Award

WILMINGTON, Mass., Dec. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- OnBoard Security®, a leader in IoT and Automotive Security, announced that its Chief Technology Officer, Dr. William Whyte, has been awarded the 2018 International Award for his work harmonizing the US and European standards for connected vehicle communications security. This harmonization will help accelerate the implementation of strong transportation security and increased safety by way of lower costs and greater operational simplicity.

IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced the recipients of the 2018 IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Awards, which were presented at the annual awards ceremony on Sunday, 2 December 2018.

The International Award is presented annually to an IEEE Standards Association individual member who has "made an extraordinary contribution to establishing the IEEE as a world-class leader in standardization."

Dr. Whyte is the editor of IEEE Std 1609.2 and related standards, which specify communications security mechanisms for use in the Connected Vehicle setting. A similar Connected Vehicle initiative existed in Europe, with standards being developed in ETSI. The ETSI standards and the US standards (IEEE and SAE) have historically been different, even though they are trying to serve similar use cases and meet very similar requirements. Dr. Whyte proposed that ETSI should discard its current design and adopt 1609.2, making the IEEE standard the baseline for connected vehicle deployments in Europe.

To get ETSI to agree to adopt the IEEE standard, Dr. Whyte needed to address technical, process, and institutional concerns:

• The ETSI standards are written with significant input from the Car 2 Car Communications Consortium security working group; that group needed to approve the adoption of the IEEE standard.
• The ETSI working group needed to have assurance that the IEEE standard met all of its requirements.
• The study group determined that there were a number of edge cases that 1609.2-2016 did not address. Dr. Whyte implemented the necessary changes in 1609.2a, shepherded it through the working group, and saw it through a full sponsor ballot including two recirculations.
• ETSI was concerned about basing its standard on an IEEE standard, especially since this was going to be the subject of a European mandate. Dr. Whyte worked with IEEE and ETSI staff and officers to understand and address the ETSI concerns. This resulted in a signed copyright agreement granting ETSI the permissions to reproduce 1609.2 material if necessary and resolving the ETSI objection. The ETSI standard was published on November 16 2017.

http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/103000_103099/103097/01.03.01_60/ts_103097v010301p.pdf
"I am honored to have my work recognized in this way," said Dr. Whyte. "OnBoard Security continues to influence and drive the worldwide adoption of strong security practices in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and this International Award is acknowledgement of those efforts."

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 1,200 active standards and over 650 standards under development.

About OnBoard Security
OnBoard Security was created to help automotive and IoT organizations stay ahead of the curve through superior cybersecurity. For over 10 years, the world-renowned experts at OnBoard Security have been pioneering technologies that protect the Internet of Things, now and for the future. We address three significant challenges; ensuring the security and privacy of autonomous and connected vehicles, making hardware roots of trust easy to use, and avoiding the existential threat from quantum computers to the integrity of the internet. To learn more about our solutions, please contact sales(at)onboardsecurity(dot)com

SOURCE OnBoard Security