Auto-ISAC Europe Summit 2025

Location: Volvohallen, Gothenburg, Sweden
Dates: May 6-8 2025

NCC Group’s Transport team recently attended the 3rd Annual Auto-ISAC Europe Cybersecurity Summit hosted by automotive giant, Volvo, in their headquarters at Gothenburg, Sweden.

The summit provided an invaluable opportunity to engage with automotive cyber security leaders across all levels of the ecosystem and share knowledge on new technologies, security approaches, and relevant regulation. The key themes consisted of building resilience together through collective action and shared expertise, sharing threat landscape insights, understanding new and upcoming regulations and standards efforts, and insights from real-world incidents and implementation strategies.

Across the 3-day event, these key themes were addressed from multiple perspectives. The summit showcased the latest advancements and challenges in automotive cyber security, emphasizing the importance of resilience, regulatory compliance, and innovative technologies. The discussions and presentations highlighted the need for continuous improvement and collaboration to secure the future of connected vehicles.

4 key observations, innovations and insights from the summit

1. Difficulties achieving resilience

a) Advancing Automotive Security Research: From Cyber Resilience to Digital Forensics

Volvo reviewed some of the collaboration efforts with the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova, and the cyber resilience initiative for vehicles, CyRev. This is a great example of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) working directly with government agencies to enhance overall resilience within the automotive sector. The focus of a recent project is to enhance resilience by determining how to detect and react to security incidents along with incorporating forensic capabilities to better understand and mitigate cyber threats within vehicle systems. This work also addressed liability challenges in automotive forensics, emphasizing the importance of clear legal frameworks to support forensic investigations.

b) Why Zero-Day Discovery & Collaboration Matters in Automotive Threat Intelligence

VicOne led an interesting panel discussion focusing on the Pwn2Own Automotive competition and the need for continued and increased collaboration between the automotive industry and security researchers. Pwn2Own is a fantastic competition that not only identifies new zero-day vulnerabilities but also tests the capabilities of the Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) at participating companies. Sina Kheirkhah, the Pwn2Own Automotive 2025 winner, highlighted the low hanging fruit vulnerabilities in automotive aftermarket products and electric vehicle chargers, such as hardcoded keys and lack of protections common in other IoT devices. Command injection also remains a widespread issue. Pwn2Own potentially presents a unique opportunity for NCC Group to demonstrate capability to the whole auto industry while affording our EDG and research teams (who placed 4^th in the Pwn2Own Automotive 2024 event) to ‘stretch their legs’.

For more information, read our Pwn2Own automotive blog series: 

• RomHack – Revving Up: The Journey to Pwn2Own Automotive 2024 
• 44CON - Charging Ahead: Exploiting an EV Charger Controller at Pwn2Own Automotive 2024  
• Insomnihack - Pioneering Zero Days at Pwn2Own Automotive 2024 

c) Automotive Cyber Maturity Survey 2025

The ETAS survey revealed a small improvement in cyber security maturity based on the respondents. However, regionalization of regulations and standards among the US, Europe, China (GB), and India (AIS) poses challenges. Key indicators of higher maturity include implementation of secure onboard communications, secure UDS, and monitoring such as the inclusion of SecOC, MACsec, Service 29, and Vehicle Security Operations Centers (VSOC).

2. Dynamic cyber threat landscapes

a) Impact of the Cyber Resilience Act on the Automotive Industry

The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) impacts various vehicle types (T, C, R, S) and ISO 24882. While ISO 21434 covers most CRA requirements, CRA includes more prescriptive mandates. Suppliers must understand how their products integrate into the complete vehicle system, which may be subject to CRA.

b) End-to-End Security Architecture for Edge-Based Generative AI: From Vehicle Systems to Back-end Infrastructure

Speakers shared methods on quantizing AI models for edge use without internet connectivity. The OWASP Top 10 for LLMs was discussed, highlighting the importance of continuous testing and tuning. Authorization controls should be external to the model, and compliance scorecards are recommended for model adoption.

Download our report for Google into the “Security Risks of AI Hardware for Personal and Edge Computing Devices” 

c) Catching Attackers! How Honeypots Can Help in Automotive Security

Crowsi.com offers open-source honeypot capabilities for embedded devices and cloud-based vehicle simulation. The idea of using existing hardware to add virtual honeypots was explored, emphasizing risk understanding, isolation, fast patching, and continuous monitoring. A proxy on the vehicle pushing data to an offsite decoy for threat analysis was also considered.

3. Evolving regulation and standardization

a) Update from the Commission on ICT Supply Chain Cyber Security

A member of DG Connect within the European Commission provided an update on supply chain cyber security concerns about Russia and China, which was similar to recent US publications and rules such as the Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain: Connected Vehicles. The EU will focus on ICT supply chain security to mitigate risks from high-risk suppliers, particularly from China and Russia. The EU's 5G cyber security toolbox will also be expanded to include ICT supply chain security guidance. The European Commission has issued a call for public comment.

Learn more about global cyber security regulations by downloading our guide. 

b) Overview of Chinese Cyber Security Regulation GB 44495

New regulations effective January 1, 2026, mandate cyber security measures (GB 44495) for vehicles sold in China. While much of the mandate is similar to UNR155, the Chinese regulation is more prescriptive, especially regarding specific technical requirements and cyber security testing. Key clauses include:

• Clause 5: Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS)
• Clause 6: Basic requirements
• Clause 7: Technical requirements for external communications, V2X, software updates, and data security
• Clause 8: Cybersecurity testing with 27 distinct tests, requiring high/critical vulnerabilities to be fixed within six months

As seen with some of our customers, CSMS should be updated so that they encompass both UNR155 and GB44495.

c) Ethical Hacking in Automotive - Striving for Trust on Cyber Security Testing along the Value Chain 

Legal challenges in pentesting within Europe were discussed, emphasizing the need for a common understanding of testing scope. Inconsistent regulations across EU countries and IP concerns from OEMs and suppliers were highlighted. The talk concluded with a call for participation in an Auto-ISAC task force dedicated to lobbying for better legal protection for professional pentesters. As founding members of the CyberUp Campaign, NCC Group echoes these calls and has long-campaigned for the UK’s cyber laws to be updated to protect good faith cyber security researchers.

d) UK Cyber Security Regulatory Activities and Update on ISA/SAE PAS 8475 CAL/TAF 

ISO 8475 PAS is expected to be released in Q1 2026. It is highly anticipated by the automotive industry as it enables a more granular approach to risk reduction.

4. Experience reports and future challenges

a) TARA from Thumb to Rule

This presentation proposed adding a weighting factor to the attack feasibility score within a TARA based on whether there was threat intelligence available to support claim. If this becomes widely adopted this could represent a unique opportunity for companies that have an established and mature automotive TI capability.

R=S.αE
Where:  
R:Risk
S:Severity or impact " ("along s,f,o,p" )"
E:Exposure or attack feasibility
0<α<1 where there is evidence of threat intelligence,but no evidence of threat
α=1" ("i.e.unchanged attack feasibility" )"where there is no threat intelligence activity
1<α<5 where threat intelligence shows presence of threat implementation in public groups
5<α<10 where threat intelligence shows presence of commercial tools implementing threat" 

Another method of risk calculation frequently recommended by NCC Group is to introduce a third factor in risk calculation:

For safety impacts:" R=SEC
For privacy,operational or financial impacts: " R=SED
Where:  
R:Risk
S:Severity or impact " ("along s,f,o,p" )"
E:Exposure or attack feasibility
C:controllability
D:Detectability" 

b) Panel Session on OEM & Supplier Resilience

Discussions focused on efficient and effective collaboration, reporting, and remediation among OEMs and supplier networks, highlighting the need to share IP for effective testing and remediation.

Read our blog on how best to achieve automotive innovation and resilience. 

c) Driving Ahead of the Curve: How AI is Shaping Automotive Cyber Security

Highlights of the presentation included Chinese OEM, BYD Auto, rolling out driver assistance technology with DeepSeek, while Mercedes-Benz is replacing its in-vehicle voice assistant with Google's conversational AI agent. ISO/PAS 8800 outlines the use and implementation of AI in road vehicles.

d) Risk and Opportunities for Cyber Security Moving Towards a Software Defined Vehicle (SDV)

The presentation reviewed ideas on how SDVs are going to change the vehicle lifecycle and supplier support infrastructure. For example, SDVs require a software platform partner throughout their lifecycle to continue development of features and upgrades for the vehicle, which can be costly. However, virtualization of vehicle components in the cloud enables faster development and testing.

e) AI-based Security Verification - Utilizing LLMs to Generate Tailored Security Tests from TARA 

This talk reviewed lessons learned in using LLMs to create and execute test cases on vehicles, incorporating attack trees. In short, the LLMs came up short in many areas and continuous refinement of test cases by an experienced cyber security tester is essential to develop appropriate test cases and scripts.

Anecdotal evidence shows that Cucumber/Gherkin is being used in automotive embedded software development to help with embedded specifications and testing automation.

Read our AI research blog. 

f) Preparing transition to quantum safe vehicles

This talk exposed the current state of quantum cryptography, including current capability (qubits) for state-of-the-art computers and their relative threat to existing algorithms; stock-taking of recommendations from state bodies (NIST, ANSSI, BSI). The talk concluded with a call for interest in setting up a working group in Auto-ISAC dedicated to quantum cryptography transition.

Read our cryptography research blog.