Coordinated Hack of EV Chargers Could Lead to Massive Outages
Oh boy. Electric vehicles are all the rage, but a mass-hack of EV chargers could cripple the power grid. In fact, a new research study from New York University suggests that a simultaneous attack on just 1,000 EV chargers could cause a blackout large enough to bring down Manhattan. Ouch.
How EV Chargers Could Bring Down the Grid
Researchers complied a plethora of EIA data that fed multiple computer simulations to demonstrate the threat. The key element of how such an attack could spread is by penetrating the control and communication interfaces that form an Internet of Things or IoT network.
In a nutshell, an attacker could hack into the software that powers EV chargers, and the malicious code could then spread to other connected appliances and devices, creating exponential risk.
The only good news coming out of the research is that there is currently not enough scale in the EV sector to enable an impactful result. Although there are over 1 million electric vehicles in the U.S. at the time of this writing, the number is still too small to have a widespread impact.
That said, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) projects that there will be 7 million EVs on the road in just 6 years, at which point they will represent a whopping 28% of global light duty vehicle sales. So, in just a matter of 5 years, this theoretical threat could become a realistic threat that emergency planners will need to factor into emergency response plans and protocols.
For now, I’d recommend keeping a close eye on the growth of EV chargers across the country and the globe. Once there is enough scale in the market, according to the research it’d be easy to coordinate a mass attack. It’s coming, and like all cybersecurity threats, it will be critical to stay ahead of the curve on this one.
