Electric Vehicles Security and Privacy: Challenges, Solutions, and Future Needs

Abstract: Electric Vehicles (EVs) share common technologies with classical fossil-fueled cars, but they also employ novel technologies and components (e.g., Charging System and Battery Management System) that create an unexplored attack surface for malicious users. Although multiple contributions in the literature explored cybersecurity aspects of particular components of the EV ecosystem (e.g., charging infrastructure), there is still no contribution to the holistic cybersecurity of EVs and their related technologies from a cyber-physical system perspective. In this paper, we provide the first in-depth study of the security and privacy threats associated with the EVs ecosystem. We analyze the threats associated with both the EV and the different charging solutions. Focusing on the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) paradigm, we provide a detailed analysis of all the processes that an attacker might exploit to affect the security and privacy of both drivers and the infrastructure. To address the highlighted threats, we present possible solutions that might be implemented. We also provide an overview of possible future directions to guarantee the security and privacy of the EVs ecosystem. Based on our analysis, we stress the need for EV-specific cybersecurity solutions.