Securing a Connected Vehicle Platform for a Leading European Automotive OEM

Introduction

One of Europe's largest automotive conglomerates was facing increasing challenges in securing its rapidly expanding connected vehicle ecosystem. The existing security infrastructure was fragmented across multiple platforms, resulting in siloed management of vehicle identities, certificates, cryptographic keys, and access controls. This lack of a unified security framework limited operational efficiency, increased administrative complexity, and constrained scalability.

As the number of connected vehicles, devices, and ecosystem partners continued to grow, manual certificate and key provisioning processes became a significant bottleneck, impacting deployment timelines and increasing the potential for human error. Additionally, the distributed security architecture heightened the risk of unauthorized access and made it difficult to maintain consistent security policies across the ecosystem.

To support future growth and large-scale connected vehicle deployments, the organization required a centralized, scalable, and robust security solution that could streamline identity and credential management, simplify partner integrations, and provide a secure foundation for next-generation connected mobility services.

Challenge

Tata Elxsi designed and implemented a security-first connected vehicle platform architecture to enable secure communication, authentication, and lifecycle management.

The solution included:

1. Development of a service-oriented connected vehicle platform with an integrated multi-layer security architecture.
2. Implementation of enterprise-grade key management infrastructure for secure FOTA signing and encryption
3. Deployment of a complete Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) ecosystem with Hardware Security Module (HSM)-based certificate provisioning and lifecycle management
4. Secure distribution of keys and certificates during vehicle manufacturing and TCU provisioning processes
5. Establishment of automated certificate issuance, renewal, revocation, and compliance monitoring capabilities
6. Security validation, penetration testing, and resilience assessments across the platform & application ecosystem

Solution

Tata Elxsi designed and implemented a security-first connected vehicle platform architecture to enable secure communication, authentication, and lifecycle management.

The solution included:

1. Development of a service-oriented connected vehicle platform with an integrated multi-layer security architecture.
2. Implementation of enterprise-grade key management infrastructure for secure FOTA signing and encryption
3. Deployment of a complete Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) ecosystem with Hardware Security Module (HSM)-based certificate provisioning and lifecycle management
4. Secure distribution of keys and certificates during vehicle manufacturing and TCU provisioning processes
5. Establishment of automated certificate issuance, renewal, revocation, and compliance monitoring capabilities
6. Security validation, penetration testing, and resilience assessments across the platform & application ecosystem

Impact

Tata Elxsi enabled the automotive OEM to build a secure, scalable connected vehicle platform by implementing enterprise-grade PKI, HSM-backed key management, and trusted OTA security.

1. Enabled 100% encrypted vehicle-to-cloud communications using mTLS-based authentication and certificate-driven trust models.
2. Implemented automated certificate lifecycle management covering provisioning, renewal, revocation, and compliance monitoring.
3. Reduced certificate provisioning effort by 70% through automated PKI workflows.
   Accelerated secure onboarding of connected vehicles by 60% through streamlined identity and key management processes.
4. Achieved 100% secure code signing coverage for FOTA software releases.
   Strengthened cryptographic key protection using FIPS 140-2 Level 2 & Level 3 compliant security controls.
5. Established a centralized security framework supporting multiple ecosystem partners and suppliers
6. Successfully completed independent security assessments and penetration testing validations.
7. Improved cybersecurity readiness and compliance alignment with ISO 27001, ISO 27018, GDPR, and UNECE R155/R156 requirements.

Key services delivered

• Connected Vehicle Security Architecture
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Design & Implementation
• Hardware Security Module (HSM) Integration
• Vehicle Identity and Certificate Management
• Secure Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) Updates
• Cryptographic Key Lifecycle Management
• Security Governance and Compliance Framework
• Penetration Testing and Security Validation