Electric Vehicles Could Introduce Cyber Risk to Australia’s Power Grid: Energy Experts

The Tesla electric car charging station in Sydney, Australia, on April 14, 2015. Ben Rushton/Getty Images

Energy experts have warned that Australia could be subject to cyber-attacks and widespread power outages as more electric vehicles (EVs) connect to the national power grid unless the government takes proper measures early.

They said the cyber security issue had not been raised among the discussions on Australia’s National Electric Vehicle Strategy and thus needed to be prioritised.

Before addressing the Australian Cyber Conference in Melbourne on Oct. 13, Electric Vehicle Council energy and infrastructure head Ross De Rango said that it was crucial to deal with the issue to prevent devastating outcomes.

How Do EVs Pose Cyber Threat to The Power Grid?

De Rango said Australians would consume about 40 percent more electricity after an increase in EV adoption and that charging them at once and during peak times could be a disaster for the energy network.

He noted that while energy companies could use technology to schedule or “orchestrate” vehicle charging, new security threats could emerge if regulators connected this technology to the national power grid.

For instance, a hacker could create power outages by exploiting security flaws and making all vehicles charge at the wrong times.

“What happens if we are building a system where all of the EV charging normally happens at the right time, and a malicious actor gets involved, and all of a sudden the EV charging happens at the wrong time?” he said in comments obtained by AAP.

“That’s where cyber security comes into it.”

The new Nissan LEAF vehicle is seen in Melbourne, Australia, on July 11, 2019. Michael Dodge/Getty Images

De Rango said the manufacturers of electric vehicles and charging equipment, software providers or energy company could take advantage of the security holes in the software, which was something they could not do with traditional power connections.

“If you want to spoof [the current] signal, then you need to climb a power pole with a set of alligator clips,” he said.

“The likelihood of an external malicious actor being able to do that is negligible.

“If we have a future where the means of connection and control is via the internet, there is a threat surface there that doesn’t exist right now.”

Security Flaws in EV Charging Equipment

BlackBerry Asia Pacific and Japan engineering director Jonathan Jackson said overseas researchers had spotted security flaws in electric vehicle charging equipment.

He cited a study by Carlos Alvarez College of Business in the United States, which found major security holes in 13 out of 16 EV charging stations, including a lack of authentication standards.

“The vulnerabilities just in the software alone on EVs is showing we’ve got a long way to go at a global level, not just in Australia, to ensure the security of the energy system,” Jackson said.

“We don’t actually have a choice here. If we’ve got the stated gain of EVs helping us to drive to net zero [emissions], we are absolutely going to need to tackle this head-on. It’s a matter of if, not when.”

Furthermore, Jackson said there had been cases of energy suppliers suffering from ransomware attacks, such as Queensland’s CS Energy in November 2021 and America’s Colonial Pipeline in May, which showed that the national grid could be a target of malicious actors.

Nevertheless, he said the federal government could protect the country’s energy network if it took action early.

“This is an addressable issue, but we do need to talk about it now,” he said.

“Once all the buildings have got smart EV orchestrated, it’s going to be incredibly costly for everyone to bolt (security) on afterwards.”

The Australian government is calling on the public to provide feedback on its national strategy for EVs. Submission to the consultation will be open until Oct. 31.