NEWS

2021.11.29

Automotive Security workshop using RAMN boards held at SINCON 2021 conference.

The Singapore cybersecurity community, Division Zero (Div0)'s *1 special interest group - Car Security Quarter (CSQ)*2 organized an online workshop at SINCON 2021*3, using RAMN *4 boards developed by researchers at Toyota Otemachi.

Cybersecurity countermeasures for automotive networks are gathering more and more attention from the security community. In this context, researchers at Otemachi developed a low-cost automotive testbed "RAMN" to encourage education and research in automotive systems. RAMN, an open-source project, was presented at HITB Cyberweek and Chaos Communication Congress in 2020.

RAMN is a CAN-FD network of 4 ECUs (Electronic Control Units) that can be connected to the autonomous driving simulator CARLA in order to simulate the internals of a self-driving vehicle. It allows students to interact with a functional CAN-FD bus, as well as to interact with diagnostics features traditionally found in ECUs, such as UDS (Unified Diagnostic Services).

*Pictures of RAMN*
RAMN is a credit card-size CAN-FD network of 4 ECUs to study and research automotive systems. Both software and hardware are open-source *4

Using RAMN boards, and with technical support from our researchers, CSQ members organized a workshop aimed at Singaporean students that teaches an introductory course about automotive systems, from the basics of vehicular architecture to the different methods to secure them. To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the workshop was not held in-person. Instead, the workshop was held online using a combination of Raspberry Pis and cloud services, in order to allow participants to interact with RAMN boards (provided by Toyota Otemachi) from the comfort of their home.

*Pictures of div0 workshop
pictures of workshop organizers (CSQ team members) and their RAMN setup for online training. Trainers are seated separately in other rooms (2 per pax) and practiced social distancing according to Covid-19 requirements. Photo only taken to mark the end of the workshop.

The workshop reached full capacity and gathered positive feedback from the participants. Both CSQ and Toyota are committed to encourage research and education in automotive systems and their security.