Warning to electric drivers as thieves devise ingenious way of breaking in

DRIVERS of electric vehicles have been given an urgent warning after thieves devised a devious way of breaking in.

While motor companies are ramping up their production of new electric vehicles, it’s thought the industry is not doing enough to deal with cybersecurity threats.

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A leading cybersecurity firm has now warned motorists that protection surrounding charging points is being overlooked.

When users charge their vehicles there is also a data connection between the vehicle and the EV hub.

Charging stations are connected to the internet, making them vulnerable to being hacked by cybercriminals.

Check Point Software Technologies has warned that if a cybercriminal gains access to a charging hub it could have serious consequences.

In theory, a hacker could gain access to a vehicle’s engine management system via an EV charging point, meaning they could compromise the car’s safety, performance or even disable the vehicle entirely.

This could have particularly serious consequences if the vehicle in question was an ambulance or cop car, where any delay could pose a risk to life.

According to Check Point Research, there has been a 59 per cent increase in ransomware attacks around the world.

It comes as figures show the UK’s transportation industry suffered an average of 979 cyberattacks a week over the last six months.

Check Point believes it won’t be long until the potential to exploit EV charging stations is noted, so it is key that newer, greener technologies have protection.

Muhammad Yahya Patel, security engineer at Check Point, said: “Concerns over cybersecurity could be another obstacle to the future growth of the electric vehicle market, so it’s vital that the industry takes the threat seriously. 

“Unsecured charging devices are an open door to increasingly sophisticated threat actors and yet there are proven infrastructure security solutions out there that could prevent such attacks and further encourage the development of sustainable travel.”

He also warned that cybercriminals could knock out an entire network of charging hubs by exploiting just one vulnerability in one device.

That could mean a loss of revenue for the operator and significant disruption on the UK’s roads.

Another big target for criminals are payment systems which if they are compromised have the potential for hackers to steal financial information either from the driver or the network operator.

Hackers could also target the operator’s management software with ransomware, also leading to a significant financial loss.

That could also mean a hacker could disable a firm’s entire delivery operation.

The latest figures show that by the end of September 2022, there were 34,860 electric vehicle charging points across 20,888 charging locations in the UK.

That’s a rise of 35 per cent in the number of charging devices since September last year.

Those figures though do not include charge points at workplaces or at homes, which are estimated to be more than 400,000.

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