Power, downforce and reliability are all-important to modern Formula One teams. But data security might just top them all as the most crucial factor in the whole operation.

In the high-octane, speed-focused world of Formula One there are clear objectives that anyone could describe. Drivers and teams try to finish first, or at least as far forward as possible. They try to use as little fuel as possible, develop the best aerodynamics and squeeze the most power out of their engines.

But all of that is overshadowed by the need to keep secrets and prevent sabotage. The data coursing wirelessly to and from cars as they scream around the track is possibly the most crucial element of the whole race weekend.

Data protection

Imagine if that data was unsecure. Anyone with a smartphone could siphon off the data – and data is everything. It needs to be protected. Ferrari uses a ‘customised’ solution from Kaspersky Lab technologies to keep its priceless analyses under digital lock and key. One might know the name from the high-end anti-virus and internet security programmes one can buy, which share the same levels of security.

We spoke to Alexander Moiseev, managing director (Europe) at Kaspersky Lab, about the hidden but essential role his company plays in every Formula One race.

Threat protection

He begins, via a crackly telephone line from the firm’s European headquarters in London, by explaining that the company’s spectrum of protection spans not just Ferrari’s F1 efforts, but its factory and offices, too, “against all of the most common kinds of cyberthreats, including malware, spam, hackers, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, sophisticated cyber-espionage tools, and cyberweapons that target the critical infrastructure of entire nations,” he says, somewhat calmly. I’d probably be sweating a bit if that last one was my responsibility.

Race day

But it’s race days I’m most interested in, so I ask how data security works for Kaspersky and Ferrari in the thick of the action.

“The data is travelling at very fast speeds to prevent it from being compromised,” he starts, “so our security solution needs to ensure there are no latency issues. As well as securing the critical infrastructure [of the team setup], a challenge for us was to combine all Ferrari’s devices into one perimeter that was fully controlled without any impact on performance or the speed of data transfer.”

Alexander Moiseev

Remote control

No Kaspersky personnel have to travel with Ferrari. The security systems can be managed remotely. But when I ask what sort of data Ferrari needs to transfer, Moiseev reveals that the firm has absolutely no direct access to any of it, so they can only speculate.

“Telemetry is our guess, as we know from our own racing team (for which he himself drives) how important this data is on race day.

“However, the reality is that our focus is simply to ensure Ferrari’s IT systems are free from vulnerabilities and outside intrusion, regardless of what data is being protected.”

Industry secrets

How many attacks they have to prevent is a matter of measured secrecy for the firm. “Although we aren’t able to disclose specific customer data, we can say there is a notable increase in malware traffic during a typical race weekend,” says Moiseev at length. “But our involvement is completely invisible to the customer. Often the best security is security you don’t know is there.”

But it has to be there. If it wasn’t, saboteurs could bring a company to its knees. Moiseev is keen to stress it. “Critical infrastructure, which although extremely vulnerable to outside threats, is often overlooked by enterprises despite the fact it could have dire consequences.

“For example, if servers controlling factory robots were compromised, this could potentially wreak havoc on production lines.” No kidding.

Not-so-smartphones

One of the most interesting things that emerges from the conversation with Moiseev is that hand-held devices like phones and tablets are less of a danger in the hands of hackers than they are in the hands of potentially careless employees. Ferrari has banned them from the internal internet networks at its factory to avoid the accidental loss of data if someone, say, has their device stolen.

Through the static, Moiseev says: “Smartphones have become targets for hackers. The real danger, however, is not that the user’s phone will be remotely hacked or compromised, but that they have failed to employ the safeguards needed to ensure the data within it stays safe, should it fall into the wrongs hands.”

Racing emotions

And finally, in this least sentimental of businesses, there’s a human touch. I ask whether it’s different to provide race-day security than it is to protect the factory and facilities.

“Emotionally it is,” he admits. “Race weekend is a big responsibility and there is a great deal of pressure on many people. In terms of Ferrari we have been doing this for many years and to the same high level of success.

“We are still focusing on threats and working hard to protect against them.”