Blackberry launches new cybersecurity software for autonomous vehicles

Blackberry has announced the launch of Blackberry Jarvis – a transformative cybersecurity software product that has initially been marketed towards the autonomous vehicle market.

With Blackberry now largely specialising in the software industry, Jarvis has been developed to be a cloud-based scanning solution that is able to identify vulnerabilities in software used in automobiles.

“Connected and autonomous vehicles require some of the most complex software ever developed, creating a significant challenge for automakers who must ensure the code complies with industry and manufacturer-specific standards while simultaneously battle-hardening a very large and tempting attack surface for cybercriminals,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry.

See also:

• Blackberry partners with Baidu to develop autonomous vehicle technology

• Blackberry and Qualcomm to partner on autonomous vehicle technology

• BlackBerry partners with Delphi on automated driving software

“Jarvis is a game-changer for OEMs because for the first time they have a complete, consistent, and near real-time view into the security posture of a vehicle's entire code base along with the insights and deep learning needed to predict and fix vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and remain a step ahead of bad actors.”

Jarvis simplifies a process that would otherwise take experts a significant amount of time to deliver manually in a matter of minutes.

The company has already been trialling the software with Jaguar Land Rover, having been a great success within these initial stages.

“In our independent study, Jarvis delivered excellent efficiencies in time-to-market, significantly reducing the time to security assess code from thirty days to seven minutes,” said Ralf Speth, CEO, Jaguar Land Rover. “The productivity delivered by Jarvis combined with BlackBerry's trusted security heritage can transform vehicle safety.”

Should Blackberry Jarvis produce similar results more widely, the company has announced that it will then repurpose the software to be deployed in a number of alternative markets including healthcare, aerospace, defence and industrial automation, amongst others.