About Us

The only community-driven group dedicated to Automotive Security

History of ASRG

We have spread our legacy
for more than 5 years

ASRG started as a result of a master’s thesis regarding how security for automotive products will change the industry from a business perspective. One of the unexpected outcomes of this research was that the goals of security are the same across all the different automotive manufacturers and through the supply chain. Hence, we all have the same or similar goals.  This means that there are opportunities to share knowledge across the market for the greater good of drivers and passengers everywhere.

So we searched in Stuttgart, Germany for a group that would help everyone learn, understand and network with individuals who are also interested, involved, or implementing security solutions for the automotive market. Surprisingly, we didn’t find any groups, communities, or meetings that were addressing the topic… so we started one. In August 2017, ASRG-S had its first meeting in a small rented meeting room in Stuttgart West in Germany. 12 People attended, giving insights and generating ideas on how to go forward and what was important to them. This was the basis for the development of the mission statement and goals of the organization. From then on, we have been meeting every month, organizing events, contributing, and brainstorming ways to support the goals and create value for its members and sponsors.

Our Team

Driven by the community, for the community

ASRG is driven by people like yourself. Volunteers make the extra effort and dedicate their time to securing our vehicles.  These individuals are the core that drives ASRG’s objectives which ultimately builds value for the community. 

Get Involved!

Become a part of the team, promote and engage in the community.  If you are interested to get involved with ASRG

Management Team

The management team is the top level of our organization, who is responsible for driving the strategy and objectives of the community and organization.  These are the people that make this all possible. 

John Heldreth

Founder

John is an experienced engineer, entrepreneur and security evangelist in the automotive industry.  Driven by knowledge and creating solutions for business and engineering problems, he takes pride in providing solutions based on innovation. Outside of his daily work as Founder and CEO of ASRG, he works at Volkswagen AG in the Security Operations, and working to define the tooling and data challenge for vehicles on the street.  He has an Engineering Technology degree from Purdue University, a Masters in Business Administration from German Graduate Studies, and currently resides in Berlin, Germany.

Contact John:

Brandon Barry

ASRG americas lead

After focusing on automotive security in academic research and getting involved with major automakers as cybersecurity became a critical concern, Brandon founded Block Harbor on principles of cyber-physical security to provide in-demand services to the automotive industry. Brandon further serves the industry as the North America lead for the Automotive Security Research Group. He has placed first place in DEF CON’s Car Hacking Village Capture the Flag competition. 

CISSP, Sc.B Computer Engineering, Brown University

Contact Brandon:

Dr. Ikjot Saini

Academic Director

Dr. Ikjot Saini is a researcher, an educator and a leader in the field of automotive cybersecurity. She is co-director of SHIELD automotive cybersecurity Centre of Excellence and an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Windsor. As a doctoral candidate herself, in automotive cybersecurity, with focus on privacy in connected vehicles, she realized the need of a community that attracts, encourages, supports and retains the young talent in this exciting field. To fulfil this mission, she is currently serving as Academic Director of ASRG and also leading the chapter at Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Saini is a leading voice promoting women’s participation and leadership. She is currently serving as Academic Chair on Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Ontario Professional Affiliate Board. As a researcher, she likes to investigate the research problems by keeping the society at heart of the solution. In her field, it means security, privacy and safety. She has published journal and conference articles on V2X privacy schemes, engineering privacy attacks for equitable assessment, DSRC network congestion and routing protocols. 

Contact Ikjot:

Strategy

The Strategy

The management team is the top level of our organization, who is responsible for driving the strategy and objectives of the community and organization.  These are the people that make this all possible. 

Industry Challenges

  • The future of cars will be connected and rely increasingly on software. 
  • The automotive industry is trying to identify solutions to ensure secure mobility.
  • Today, there is no open community to allow automotive security professionals to solve problems, together. 
  • Everyone has the same goals for security, the only difference is how a company determines their risk and implements solutions.

ASRG Mission Statement

At ASRG, we strive to improve the security of vehicles by:

  • enabling the people developing vehicles to have the correct knowledge, networking and competencies to identify and implement security solutions into vehicles.
  • open awareness of security issues in vehicles.
  • challenge the industry to have a responsible and positive security posture.

ASRG Goals

  1. Research projects on publicly available vehicles, infrastructure and supporting backend systems.
  2. Information sharing concerning existing automotive security problems, solutions, products and technology. 
  3. Create meaningful results to be shared with the public in a controlled manner.
  4. Create a community of shared resources and networking.
  5. Remove or reduce the barrier of entry in Automotive Security.