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Hackers Could Abuse Electric Car Chargers To Cripple the Grid, Researchers Say
alphadogg writes "Hackers could use vulnerable charging stations to prevent the charging of electric vehicles in a certain area, or possibly even use the vulnerabilities to cripple parts of the electricity grid, a security researcher said during the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam on Thursday. While electric cars and EV charging systems are still in their infancy, they could become a more common way to travel within the next 10 years. If that happens, it is important that the charging systems popping up in cities around the world are secure in order to prevent attackers from accessing and tempering with them, said Ofer Shezaf, of HP ArcSight. At the moment, they are not secure at all, he said."
I've just applied for a patent on a device I call a "fuse". You can put arrays of them in a thing I call a "fuse box". They prevent too much current from passing along a wire.
No sig today...
A hacker could just as concievably shut down the computer or payment system in a traditional gas station rendering it useless. Or disrupt the credit authentication system. Or a terrorist could bomb them.
Just because its an EV does not make it or its infrastructure any more or less succeptible to an attack of some kind. To say otherwise just discourages people from looking at it as an alternative and is FUD.
Silence is a state of mime.
When all one needs is a match to cause chaos at any one of the 100,000+ gas stations across the country, it seems rather strange that we're raising the physical security flag on this. Not saying he doesn't have a point, just seems to wash out when looking at what you could do today with so little.
My house is connected to the electrical grid, and yet for some reason (safety design perhaps?), I highly doubt I could take out a city block from my bedroom outlet.
[...] in order to prevent attackers from accessing and tempering with them, [...]
temper /tempr/ Verb: Improve the hardness and elasticity of (steel or other metal) by reheating and then cooling it.
How does this relate to EV chargers and why would it be important to prevent people from using them for this task.
I think you have accidentally posted this piece to the wrong site, sir. There are too many people here who have a clue for your tactic to work. I suggest you try "SeekingAlpha" or "Forbes", if you want to manipulate a market more effectively.
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
A few days ago, Bruce Schneier launched the Sixth Movie Plot Contest, with the goal of creating catastrophic but plausible things that "cyberwarriors" and evil hackers could do to destroy America. There are some fascinating ones, that's for sure, but the real point is that if you try to defend against everything that could happen, you'll waste most of your efforts.
I am officially gone from
Readers not astonished.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The point is when the high capacity rapid chargers are widely deployed, if they all began rapid charging at the same time the voltage drop and current surge on the grid would cause an automatic circuit trip. Likewise if charging stations were all runnining by a staggered start, the grid's power stations would ramp up power output, then if you stopped charging all of the stations at the same times the power-sations would over-rev and automatically shut-down. Now consider if the grid sub-stations were hacked into and the trip-current levels on the circuit breakers were set too high, now you could blow out those hugh transformers at the sub-stations, and they aren't inventory items, they are custom made to order items, it can take months to replace 1, image trying to replace 100's! The Northeast blackout of 2003 affected 55,000,000 and the primary cause was a software bug in a single computer, imagine what could be accomplished as an act of war attack rather than an accident on a hot day. I'm not all that curious to see if a real-life version of the TV show Revolution can be created.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Hackers could abuse ______ to _____ a/the ____.
We should stick with nice, safe, harmless gasoline.
Totally harmless...
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
This brings to mind something else I've been wondering lately. Are the new electric meters that are going in capable of disconnecting service by remote command? If so, I'd think that would be an even jucier target for hacker disruption.
Many manufacturers need a license to put anything controllable on the Net. Devices need to be certified that they are not openly hackable or a danger sitting out there in the big wide world....