Cyber Defense eMagazine December Edition for 2021

Electric Vehicle Charging: The Next Cyberattack Frontier
By Prof. Thomas R. Köhler, Member of the Board of Juice Technology AG
The International Energy Agency estimates the global number of electric cars, buses, vans and heavy
trucks on the road to reach 145 million by 2030. In the U.S. estimates are that 28 million EVs will
be sold within that timeframe, in concert with the administration’s goal of 50% of new car sales to be
electric by 2030. This will create a significant demand for more public charging stations and for flexible
options like portable chargers that operate at home or on the road. Within each charging operation lies
millions of lines of code and a wealth of personal and network data. The global cybercriminal community,
always looking for new ransomware possibilities, will find this highly valuable data ripe for attack. One
U.K.-based security research company, Pen Test Partners, already found, with several charging devices
tested, that a cybercriminal could remotely gain control of the device, enabling the criminal to read user
data or even hack into the owner’s home network via a wallbox. Researchers found vulnerabilities
occurring in both home devices and charging networks.
Unfortunately, the EV industry – car manufacturers, charging station suppliers, networking solutions and
service providers – have not made cybersecurity a top-of-mind priority. While businesses in other sectors
have made strides in better protection of their data and networks, many vending machines, for example,
are better protected than charging stations.
The specific risks caused by vulnerable charging stations and unprotected components are plentiful.
Insufficient data protection can lead to user data leaks, manipulation of billing systems, ransomware
demands to infrastructure operators to prevent denial of service attacks and gaining illegal access to
businesses’ internal networks.
Lack of advanced cybersecurity measures can also have devastating impact on the charging station
operations, causing distress to operators and consumers. Cybercriminals can steal charging current,
bring down the network with a denial-of-service attack, and even risk the stability of the local or area-
Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2021 Edition 69
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