Federal officials are discussing ways to ensure cybersecurity of EV charging infrastructure, as the government pushes for a national charging network.
The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) hosted a forum last week with government officials and various EV stakeholders, including automakers and device manufacturers. charged, according to a White House release first discovered by Axios.
The meeting was not convened to combat a specific known threat, but focused on the capabilities of cybersecurity standards for EV charging hardware and research into potential risks, according to the release. . It’s not even clear, based on the meeting, which government agency will be responsible for issuing cybersecurity standards for electric vehicle charging.
2023 Cadillac Lyriq at the EVgo DC fast charging station.
Chargers can be a security hole because they are interconnected with home and business networks. Researchers have documented a number of potential vulnerabilities that could prevent charging, but charger hacks so far have been mostly hypothetical, Axios pointed out.
As a report from earlier this year suggested, one of the most obvious EV Charger Vulnerability Hackers’ targets could be fleets, where they can disrupt nightly delivery vehicle charging — just as malware can disrupt other functions.
In addition to concerns about the EV charger vulnerability, there is much discussion about how risky the cars themselves are to hackers.
Charge Tesla (Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.)
Tesla have challenged hackers to find vulnerabilities in their software in the past. And in 2016, a group of white hat hackers from China did just that, uncovering a loophole that legitimate Tesla fixed by software update.
A growing group of EVs are capable of over-the-air (OTA) software updates — or even fix problems software origin — which Tesla pioneered. That makes it easier to disseminate cybersecurity fixes, but also creates an entry point for hackers through the car’s network connection.
