DOE Research Focuses On Developing EV Charging Infrastructure

Pointers at Glance

• The market for electric vehicles is rapidly growing.
• The EVs need charging facilities for a more seamless experience.
• Charging stations at workplaces and public destinations may help improve market acceptance by providing highly flexible charging opportunities at certain locations.

Charging the increasing number of electric vehicles needs a robust network of charging stations for consumers and fleets. The trends show that there is a growth of public and private charging stations, and there is a need to assess the currently existing EV charging infrastructure in the United States.

Department of Energy (DOE) funded research and focuses on the cybersecurity end for electric vehicles (EV) charging infrastructure.

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EV Charging Vulnerabilities

Sandia National Laboratories researchers have been continuously studying the vulnerabilities in EV charging infrastructure for the past four years, and their findings are recently published in a paper.

The paper said that the EV charging infrastructure has many vulnerabilities ranging from skimming credit card data to using cloud servers to hijack an entirely electric vehicle charger network.

After looking at various types of interfaces, such as wireless communications, cloud services, vehicle-to-charger connections, etc., researchers found vulnerabilities, including the hackers’ ability to intercept vehicle-to-charger communication from over 50 yards away.

Researchers also found that some systems were vulnerable to malicious firmware updates. Hackers can have access to a whole charging network from one unit. Also, in some chargers, software vulnerabilities can be hacked but are limited to nuisance stunts. These can affect the grid in the charging stations.

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Security Measures

Researchers recommend strengthening the security measures like stronger authentication and authorization protocols for EV drivers who use charging stations and any hardware related to EVs.

The cybersecurity of electric vehicles has been discussed all the time but with limited conclusions. The companies have conducted several reports on charger security with a financial gain, such as a security service to sell.

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