A novel modular black-box architecture for secure vehicular networks

The emerging technology of vehicular communication systems (VCSs) raises a number of technical challenges that need to be addressed. Particularly, security ranks at the top of these challenges. In fact, the plethora of services that can be provided using VCSs introduces new communication scenarios that require special security services. This paper tackles the problems related to the storage of the evidences related to onboard security architectures. A special emphasis is made on the management of the events related to the features and history of the vehicle. In this context, a new black-box architecture is proposed. It consists in two basic modules: a main black-box and an auxiliary black-box. We show that this separation allows a better classification of the data records supported by the block-box. The interaction of the black-box with the other components of the VCS is also discussed. Due to the sensitivity of the event records, the input data flows pass necessarily through a security module which performs some key functions including event timestamping and security policy management. A specific public key infrastructure is also proposed to support our secure VCS architecture.