Sandia National Labs (SNL) is voicing security concerns as more car makers and consumers produce and purchase electric vehicles.
“We identified several different areas where there were potential risks,” Jay Johnson, a cyber-security researcher for SNL, told KRQE News.
According to SNL, more than 667,000 electric cars were sold in the U.S. last year, creating the need for thousands of charging stations across the country. Right now, there are about 47,000 public charging ports nationwide, which Sandia says comes with concerns.
A massive upswing in public electric vehicle chargers has created “a wide range of different vulnerabilities associated with these devices,” Johnson said, according to KRQE News.
For the past four years, Johnson has been looking into risks associated with each time a driver plugs in. Recently released findings suggest that “most of the chargers or the public chargers have cellular networks,” Johnson told KRQE News.
Scammers who steal information at the pump can also break into charging ports, public and personal.
“There are, in certain cases, unsecured ports on these devices where you can extract personal, identifiable information,” Johnson said, according to KRQE News. “Criminals can even hijack an entire EV charging network. Right now, there is no universal fix for the problem. There are some steps drivers can take to protect themselves, just like when it comes to credit card skimmers.”
Johnson advises the public to protect their personal and private information. “You just need to be aware. You need to be aware people could potentially track you or your driving behaviors,” he told KRQE News.
Johnson and his team are now working with Idaho and Pacific Northwest national labs to develop a data system to prevent criminals from hacking EV charging infrastructure.