The increasing popularity of electric vehicles isn’t just a favorite for gas-conscious consumers, but also for cyber criminals that focus on using their charging stations to launch far-reaching attacks. This is because every charging point, whether they are inside a private garage or on a public parking lot, is online and running a variety of software that interacts with payment systems and the electric grid, along with storing driver identities. In other words, they are an Internet of Things (IoT) software sinkhole.

In this post for Dark Reading, I review some of the issues surrounding deployment of charging stations, what countries are doing to regulate them, and why they deserve more attention than other connected IoT devices such as smart TVs and smart speakers.