Today, Imec announced a breakthrough in their Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) research for use in passive and secure keyless entry. The Leuven-based institution advertises the innovation as both highly accurate and extremely safe. The efficiency and wide availability of BLE make it an attractive option for a large-scale solution for everything ranging from cars to smartphones, and smart buildings.
“In its search for technologies that can make communication between the contactless car key and the lock more secure, the automotive industry is studying various solutions,” says Kathleen Philips, IoT Director at Imec. “Of particular importance here is that the technology is very low power, cheap and extremely resistant against hacker attacks. Stealing cars or burglarizing homes without breaking and entering is a lucrative business, so the protective measures must be such that they cannot be circumvented.”
In the development of the security mechanisms for the new solution, Imec joined forces with the Cosic research group at KU Leuven. From this collaboration, researchers claim to be able to make the lock impossible to hack, by preventing the distance to the key from being manipulated. To confirm these assertions, Imec plans to invite ethical hackers to test the security system and to underline its robustness.
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