In recent years, security researchers and white-hat hackers have identified sprawling vulnerabilities in internet-connected home and public charging hardware that could expose customer data, compromise Wi-Fi networks, and, in a worst-case scenario, bring down power grids. As companies, governments, and consumers sprint to install more chargers, the risks could only grow. While such breaches have so far remained relatively innocuous, cybersecurity experts say the consequences would be far more severe at the hands of truly nefarious miscreants. Just this year, the hosts of YouTube channel The Kilowatts tweeted a video showing it was possible to take control of an Electrify America station’s operating system. Around the same time, cyber-vandals in England programmed public chargers to broadcast pornography. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, hackers tweaked charging stations along the Moscow–Saint Petersburg motorway in Russia to greet users with anti-Putin messages.
Such shenanigans are increasingly common.
'It was, unfortunately, not terribly surprising,” Malcolm says of the hack, which he stumbled upon last fall.
