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Automotive Standards

ISO/SAE 21434

ISO/SAE 21434:2021 is the international standard for cybersecurity engineering of road vehicles. It defines the activities, dependencies, and information required for cybersecurity throughout the vehicle lifecycle — from concept through production, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning.

Definition

ISO/SAE 21434:2021 is the international standard for cybersecurity engineering of road vehicles. It defines the activities, dependencies, and information required for cybersecurity throughout the vehicle lifecycle — from concept through production, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning.

What it means

Co-developed by ISO and SAE and published in August 2021, ISO/SAE 21434 is the cornerstone of automotive cybersecurity practice and the de-facto implementation path for UN-R 155 (which mandates a Cybersecurity Management System but does not specify implementation). The standard organizes cybersecurity work into:

- Overall cybersecurity management (governance, training, project organization) - Project-dependent cybersecurity management (per-project planning, cybersecurity case) - Continuous cybersecurity activities (monitoring, incident response, vulnerability management) - Concept phase (item definition, TARA, cybersecurity goals) - Product development (architectural design, integration, verification, validation) - Cybersecurity validation - Production - Operations and maintenance - Decommissioning

Compliance is typically demonstrated through process audit by a third-party assessor, plus evidence of TARA execution and cybersecurity case documentation per project.

Related terms

- TARA - UN-R 155 - ECU

Authoritative sources

- ISO/SAE 21434:2021 - SAE international standard page

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End of glossary-batch-2/article.md (4 Automotive terms: OBD-II, ECU, TARA, ISO/SAE 21434).