Engineers at Southwest Research Institute have identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities with electric vehicles (EVs) using direct current fast-charging systems, the quickest, commonly used way to charge electric vehicles. The high-voltage technology relies on power line communication (PLC) technology to transmit smart-grid data between vehicles and charging equipment.

In a laboratory, the SwRI team exploited vulnerabilities in the PLC layer, gaining access to network keys and digital addresses on both the charger and the vehicle.

A Russian zero-day exploit purchase site is interested in tools for hacking of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. This raises a number of questions. Why would anybody want to hack such targets? Also, why would Russian entities (in particular) be interested in such targets? The best answer to these is “good question!”, and let's put politics aside. Let’s explore the potential cybersecurity risks of electric vehicle charging station, assuming the ability of compromising them at a scale, having some kind of tools. It turns out that this is a fascinating security problem!