Report on the "secure vehicular communications: results and challenges ahead" workshop

Abstract

The Workshop on Secure Vehicular Communications: Results and Challenges Ahead took place in February 20-21, 2008, on the EPFL campus, Lausanne, Switzerland. The event brought together experts, from a variety of organizations, working on vehicular communication systems, security and privacy. The fourteen presentations offered an overview of the latest results and reflected the views of public authorities, academia, and industry. During the one and a half days of the workshop, the thirty-five attendees had the opportunity to have an in-depth discussion on future research and development directions for vehicular communication systems security and privacy. The developments in the area of vehicular networks and communication systems, and the increasing attention from industry, academia and authorities, motivated us to organize this workshop. Vehicular communications (VC), including vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, with the latter leading to vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), lie at the core of a number of research initiatives. They aim to enhance transportation safety and efficiency, with applications that provide, for example, warnings about environmental hazards (e.g., ice on the pavement), traffic and road conditions (e.g., emergency braking, congestion, or construction sites), and local (e.g., tourist) information. Nonetheless, the unique features of VC are a double-edged sword: the rich set of tools they offer make possible a formidable set of abuses and attacks. Consider any wireless-enabled device that runs a rogue version of the vehicular communication protocol stack and injects forged messages or meaningfully modifies messages transmitted by vehicle onboard communication units; or a vehicle that forges messages in order to masquerade an emergency vehicle and mislead other vehicles to slow down and yield. Furthermore, it is possible for the vehicles and their sensing, processing, and communication platforms to be compromised. Worse even, it is not difficult to consider a node could ’contaminate’ large portions of the vehicular network with false information: for example, a single vehicle can transmit false environmental hazard warnings that can then be taken up by all vehicles in both traffic streams. From a different point of view, consider a large number of wireless access points deployed across an urban area, or along a highway (at rest areas, gas stations, etc). With such a wireless infrastructure receiving transmissions from passing by vehicles, anyone that obtained access to such data could easily infer private information about the drivers and the vehicle passengers: their locations, their routes, their communications and transactions. These simple examples of abuse indicate that in all circumstances vehicular communications must be secured and the privacy of their users should be protected. It appears that the security of VC systems and the protection of their users’ privacy are indispensable. Otherwise, these systems could make anti-social and criminal behavior easier than it is today without the VC technology. If this were the case, the benefits of deploying VC systems would be in jeopardy. It is our belief that security and privacy concerns for vehicular communication systems should, and hopefully will, be addressed before the deployment of VC systems. It is our hope that this venue provided a survey of the state-of-the-art solutions, cross-pollinated research and development efforts in two continents, increased further awareness, and thus contributed towards the objective of trustworthy vehicular communication systems.