UK electric vehicle charging network cyber security risks, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): The UK’s electric vehicle charging network is vulnerable to cyber attacks from hostile states such as Russia and China that could disrupt roads across the country, according to The i Paper. Hackers could target Britain’s rapidly growing public network of 125,000 charging points, which currently has no specific cyber security measures in place.
Home EV chargers, of which there are around 1.4 million in the UK, must already comply with security requirements set out in legislation, but experts say they still have vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. An attack could take out charging points, leaving motorists unable to power their cars.
If several chargers were affected, drivers would have to search for alternatives, causing disruption on the roads and at forecourts.
Recent research from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University found that an attacker need only manipulate EV charging navigation systems to redirect large numbers of vehicles to the same charging station. The Department for Transport has acknowledged in published documents that the UK’s public network of charging points has no uniform security measures.
Officials warned that hackers could carry out direct attacks on charge points, which could be manipulated or misused to compromise other parts of the charging network.
The i Paper reported this week that unidentified cyber criminals had targeted refrigerators and freezers in hospitals and supermarkets in the UK and Europe, spoiling food and blood products, and that bomb hoaxes had disrupted flights. It is not known who is behind these incidents, but there are fears of links to a hostile state such as Russia, given Vladimir Putin’s increasing use of so-called grey warfare tactics against the West.
The i Paper was told there are concerns that hostile powers could stage an attack on EV charging points to destabilise the country.
Labour MP Graeme Downie, chair of the Coalition on Secure Technology campaign group, urged the government to be honest with the public that this is a threat. “Frankly, this is how other states will attack us,” he said.
Experts have also long warned that Chinese technology in EVs and charging points could be used by Beijing for espionage and sabotage. One concern is that Chinese-made cellular modules, which connect devices such as EV chargers to mobile networks, could be used by Chinese intelligence if companies are compelled under national security laws to hand over information.
A senior security source told The i Paper that the Chinese are ahead of the Russians in their ability to coordinate cyber attacks and sabotage, and that this kind of hybrid warfare is the tool of choice for any hostile state. “It feels as if the government had rather taken their eye off the ball around all of this,” the source added.
The government is consulting on a new requirement for manufacturers to build cyber security protections into public charging points, similar to those already mandatory for home chargers. Home chargers must have unique passwords, the ability to receive secure software updates and protections against unauthorized access, such as encrypted communications between the charger, smartphone apps and cloud systems.
Experts warn that home charging still has vulnerabilities, as a hacker may be able to stage an attack by targeting apps, cloud platforms or software suppliers.
Any hack could also threaten public services, as the number of local buses and NHS ambulances that are fully electric has been growing in recent years. Downie said that disruption to people, businesses and public services could occur simultaneously across a geographically dispersed area, making it hard to isolate the fault.
He warned that a cyber attack could create a domino effect that affects the whole country bit by bit, and that people may assume a problem is a fault rather than an attack. He also cautioned that new EV technology claiming to charge a car to near-full in nine minutes could lead people to leave charging until the last minute, making a possible attack more disruptive.
Eric Escobar, a principal consultant at Sophos, a British cybersecurity firm that has worked with companies to ethically hack electric chargers to test their defenses, said a motivated hacker could impact the entire fleet of chargers. He said different threat actors have different goals, including shutting down or disabling chargers, targeting a specific charger to learn when someone is home, or affecting the payment system or the cost of electricity.
Tougher new cyber security requirements would apply only to new public chargers sold or installed after the rules come into force. Existing charging points will not have to be upgraded, even if they do not meet the new standard, and the department says, “We will not require retrofitting.” The government is also proposing physical protections, such as tamper-proof seals or sensors that can alert operators if someone tries to open a charger and interfere with its internal components.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said it is right that public charging infrastructure is similarly protected, given that private chargers are already subject to regulation and vehicle manufacturers meet stringent cyber security standards. The Department for Transport’s consultation on the proposed cyber security requirements for public EV charge points closes on 20 December 2026.
University of Oxford researchers demonstrated in 2022 that rapid EV charging can be disrupted remotely, in their tests from around 50 metres away, by interfering with communications between the vehicle and charger so that the charging session stops. The vehicles tested would only resume charging once a driver unplugged and reconnected the cable and the interference had stopped.
The researchers found that multiple vehicles could be disrupted at the same time, which they warned could be particularly problematic for bus, taxi and HGV fleets that rely on frequent rapid charging.
More recent research from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, published in February of this year, said hackers could manipulate EV charging navigation systems to direct large numbers of vehicles to one charging station and potentially destabilise the electricity grid. The researchers said cyber attacks on a country’s power grid are difficult and costly, and that driver-facing charging systems are far less well protected, making them a more accessible entry point for hackers.
