The spike in gas prices and growing demand for zero-emission transport have contributed to rapid electric vehicle adoption.
Research shows that about 6.9 million EVs were purchased in 2021, projected to account for 34% of the vehicle fleet globally by 2028.
As a result, companies have had to set up more EV charging stations to meet the rising demand. Currently, there are over 2 million EV charging stations globally. Although EV charging hubs are becoming popular, they are not 100% secure, and hackers find flaws to exploit.
Are hackers interested in EV charging stations? Can these stations be hacked, and how does this affect you? We will share our expert insights on these pressing questions in this article.
Are Hackers interested in Targeting Electric Car Charging Stations?
The EV charging station is a target point for hackers to steal personal data. Malicious actors can steal drivers’ identities by infiltrating the stations via physical ports or remotely and use that information for countless activities. One possible use of such stolen data is free EV charging with charges debited from the drivers’ cards. Hackers can also sell these data on the dark web to the highest bidders.
Recent reports reveal that the EVs industry faces a growing cybersecurity risk, primarily through charging stations with different incidents across the globe, to confirm these facts.
In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine invasion, hackers disabled Russian electric vehicle charging stations along the Russia Highway. The hijacked screen displayed messages like “Death to the enemy, Glory to Ukraine.”
Reports claim that the hacker accessed the points through a backdoor in the data controller. The hack crippled EV drivers’ access to charging station facilities, and management had to shut them down for preventive maintenance.
In April, another set of cyber crooks hijacked the screens in the aisle of wright council car parks to display pornographic content. Although the EV drivers still had access to the charging facilities, many questioned the safety of the hub’s infrastructure.
What Can Hackers Do To Your EV Charging stations?
EV Charging stations have access to the internet and communicate with EVs. Once a hacker gains access to the network, they could disable the fleet of EV charging hubs. The threat of triggering full-scale false charging data also forces the Hub to shut down.
Also, hackers can reprogram chargers to infiltrate other charging hubs. In rare cases where the charging hubs are Wi-Fi-connected with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems, they can penetrate the charging networks or the power grid through the EV charging station.
There’s also the threat of exposing customers’ data if vulnerabilities on the network aren’t corrected promptly. For example, in 2021, researchers found a vulnerability in a mobile EV charging app that exposed over 140,000 customers’ data, putting them at risk of identity theft.
How To Protect Your EV Charging Stations From Being Hacked?
Various researchers have documented findings detailing significant vulnerabilities in EV charging station infrastructure with security recommendations. Some notable solutions to protect against possible EV station hijacking includes
- Pentesting: It involves deploying security measures to identify vulnerabilities from all access points and correct them promptly.
- Shielding: It entails building a secure infrastructure around an API that can access your system. These security measures should be able to identify scripted and bots-driven traffic even if it uses valid user credentials or API keys.
CyberClan provides sophisticated enterprise cybersecurity solutions through comprehensive risk assessment, 24/7/365 managed detection and response, and lightning-fast breach response.
Contact us to get sophisticated Cybersecurity solutions and be prepared to mitigate cyberattacks targeting your system infrastructure.
Update: January 18, 2023