"EV Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Put Cars, the Grid at Risk"

Cyber defense experts warn of the possibility of hackers targeting Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure to lock drivers out of their cars, steal payment information, and disrupt electrical grids. According to experts who spoke at NextGov's recent Cyber Defenders event, if a cybercriminal were to hack into an EV, they could not only manipulate the vehicle itself but also impact the entire connected infrastructure, including charging stations, electrical grids, back-office utilities, and the cloud. Sunil Chhaya, senior technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), says hackers who compromise charging systems can lock drivers out of their vehicles by executing a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. They could damage an EV by overcharging its battery. Hackers can also add skimmers to charging stations to collect users' credit card information and PIN codes. Preventing and mitigating threats to EV infrastructure require proper enterprise cybersecurity standards. Intrusion detection software should be implemented for the entire network to show when attacks are occurring, whether a threat actor has infiltrated the network, and what they are targeting. Cybersecurity hygiene or best practices, such as password protection, should still be encouraged in this space. EV infrastructure designers are encouraged to ensure security on all levels by getting customers, endpoints, vehicles, back-office utilities, and cloud providers to operate on one set of cybersecurity requirements. This article continues to discuss cyber threats to EV infrastructure. 

GCN reports "EV Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Put Cars, the Grid at Risk"