Electric car chargers could be hacked to cause a blackout
Electric vehicle chargers can be exploited by cyber attackers to potentially damage an electricity network.
Despite constant testing, some essential accessories used by modern electric vehicles such as battery chargers remain at risk.
This is according to Kaspersky Lab, which has carried out an investigation into the security of widely available domestic electric vehicle chargers.
Researchers from the cyber security provider say electric vehicle chargers can be hacked to either stop the charging process or set it to the maximum current possible.
Halting the charging process would only inconvenience the car’s driver by limiting the vehicle’s mile range.
However, sending the maximum current could overheat the device’s wires and cause a power overload that would take down the network to which it was connected. This could result in hefty repair costs to a property’s electricity network, as well as damage other devices connected to the network.
A security researcher at Kaspersky Lab said: “People often forget that in a targeted attack, cyber criminals always look for the least obvious elements to compromise, in order to remain unnoticed. This is why it is very important to look for vulnerabilities, not just in technical innovations, but also in their accessories - they are usually a coveted prize for threat actors.”