Michael Dick, C2A Security CEO and founder

Over 30 years ago, Professor Adi Shamir developed an algorithm that was secure yet able to run on a smart card with limited CPU and memory resources. NDS was able to use this invention to enhance its conditional access technology for Pay TV.NDS eventually grew into being the global market leader for conditional access and was sold to Cisco for $5 billion.

Fast forward 30 years, and we need to do the same for automotive cybersecurity.

As a founder of NDS, I’ve tried to bring the same experience and lessons to C2A. Central amongst those is the importance of hiring the best talent and collaborating closely with academia.

We have built up a fantastic team made up of highly experienced automotive engineers, elite Israeli intelligence cybersecurity officers, graduates from the most prestigious courses, and senior algorithm and embedded engineers with whom we have worked for many, many years.

We have developed the most advanced automotive security protection out there and we strongly believe that we have the most highly developed and uniquely crafted solutions in the marketplace.

But we also feel that it is important to have a close connection to the universities that are conducting key research and training the next generation of talented engineers. This is why we are excited to announce C2A’s Academic Task Force which will be led by renowned cybersecurity research, Avishai Wool.

Professor Avishai Wool

Professor Wool is a world-renowned researcher with unique knowledge in electrical and electronic engineering, applied security, and encryption. He has led IEEE task forces while also co-founding AlgoSec. He has that very special talent of being able to apply academic insights to the practical requirements of industry. He brings with him vast academic and research knowledge while also being able to balance these against the commercial constraints involved.

Professor Wool is also critical to training the next generation of automotive cybersecurity researchers. Many of his students have presented papers at Escar conferences and become key figures within the industry in their own right.

Combining Professor Wool’s expertise with Dr Elon and Dr Naiman, our resident researchers, allows us to pool almost a century of collective research experience within one young start-up, and create a first-of-its-type academic task force.

We founded C2A to solve the automotive industry’s cybersecurity challenges. Safety is critical in vehicles most of us use to move our families and this is why we believe that our emphasis on deep research is critical. This approach has already been strongly validated by our commercial partners, but much still remains to be addressed.

We’re excited to begin collaborating with our Academic Task Force and Professor Wool as we move towards the goal of securing the vehicles of the future!