IT security experts of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences conduct research for a safe access to Salzburg’s Old Town

The access to the old part of Salzburg has been regulated for some time by retractable bollards that are operated by vehicle drivers with access authorization via a manual remote control.
To enable an automated access to the Old Town, which provides higher safety from unauthorized entry, Siemens AG Salzburg commissioned the Center for Secure Energy Informatics at the Information Technology & Systems Management degree program to evaluate possible solutions.

The “Poller Project” was prepared by master student Florian Ramspott and researchers from the center, Michael Fischinger, Norbert Egger and Christian Neureiter; the showcase was presented now.
In the approach of the IT security experts, the vehicle sends data to the bollard system via Bluetooth, the bollard system reads the signal accordingly and authenticates the vehicle. Using demonstrators, Ramspott, Fischinger and Egger showed which data and signals are protected to prevent possible manipulation of the bollards. The system is based on a special software architecture (FREDOSAR), which was developed by the experts of the center for projects in the IOT context. The solution for the safe entry of Salzburg’s Old Town lies in encrypted data transmission with state-of-the-art security levels.

Wolfgang Schneider, Branch Manager of Siemens Salzburg, was pleased that “the project on bollard safety is another successful example of the benefits of research at the Center for Secure Energy Informatics”.