RESEARCH NEWS
Cybersecurity risks with EV fast charging
Engineers at Southwest Research Institute ( Texas , USA ) have identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities with electric vehicles ( EVs ) using direct current fastcharging systems ( the quickest , commonly used way to charge electric vehicles ). The high-voltage technology relies on powerline communication ( PLC ) technology to transmit smart-grid data between vehicles and charging equipment . In a laboratory , the SwRI team exploited vulnerabilities in the PLC layer , gaining access to network keys and digital addresses on the charger and vehicle .
“ Through our penetration testing , we found that the PLC layer was poorly secured and lacked encryption between the vehicle and the chargers ,” said Katherine Kozan , an engineer who led the project for SwRI ’ s High Reliability Systems Department . The team found unsecure key generation present on older chips when testing , which was confirmed through online research to be a known concern .
In this latest project , SwRI explored vehicle-to-grid ( V2G ) charging technologies governed by ISO 15118 specifications for communications between EVs and electric vehicle supply equipment ( EVSE ) to support electric power transfer .
“ As the grid evolves to take on more EVs , we need to defend our critical grid infrastructure against cyberattacks while also securing payments to charge EVs ,” said Vic Murray , assistant director of SwRI ’ s High Reliability Systems Department . “ Our research found room for improvements .”
“ Adding encryption to the network membership key would be an important first step in securing the V2G charging process ,” said FJ Olugbodi , an SwRI engineer who contributed to the project . “ With network access granted by unsecure direct access keys , the non-volatile memory regions on PLC-enabled devices could be easily retrieved and reprogrammed . This opens the door to destructive attacks such as firmware corruption .”
However , encrypting embedded systems on vehicles poses several challenges so SwRI has developed a zero-trust architecture that can address these . It connects several embedded systems using a single cybersecurity protocol . SwRI ’ s future EV cybersecurity research will test zero-trust systems for PLC and other network layers .
“ Automotive cybersecurity poses many layers of complexity , but we are excited about these new techniques to identify and address vulnerabilities ,” said Cameron Mott , an SwRI manager leading SwRI ’ s automotive cybersecurity research . n
www . swri . org
Launch of Robotics Institute Germany
The newly founded Robotics Institute Germany ( RIG ) is a leading consortium , led by the Technical University of Munich ( TUM ) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( KIT ), which was co-founded by the University of Stuttgart . Its aim is to make Germany “ the world ’ s leading location for AI-based robotics .”
The new consortium brings together leading universities and non-university research institutions that want to use synergies in the future and become visible worldwide as a strong robotics network . Under the umbrella of the RIG , research into AI-based robotics in Germany is to become globally competitive . Infrastructures and resources are to be shared , talent promoted , benchmarks developed and transfer to industry expanded .
“ The RIG is more than a nationwide network that brings together the best scientists ,” explained Prof . Kai Arras from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Stuttgart . “ It is a catalyst for innovation and economic progress .”
As part of the RIG , Arras and his team from the AI Institute want to develop benchmarks that will enable new robot systems to be assessed in a standardised manner in the future and therefore made comparable for use in practice . The focus is on the use of the latest AI technologies that enable robots to gain a deep semantic and social understanding of their environments . As a former head of robotics research at Robert Bosch GmbH ,
Image : University of Stuttgart , ISW .
Arras is also familiar with the needs of industry and will bring this expertise to the design of the RIG ’ s topics and talent programmes .
The Robotics Institute Germany ( RIG ) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ) with 20- million euros ( duration : 1 July 2024 to 31 June 2028 ). The following institutions are also participating in the RIG : the University of Bonn ; the Technical University of Berlin ; the Technical University of Darmstadt ; the
Virtual reality and augmented reality make production processes more efficient and reliable .
University of Bremen ; RWTH Aachen ; the Technical University of Dresden and the Technical University of Nuremberg as well as the German Aerospace Centre ( DLR ); the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems ( MPI-IS ); three Fraunhofer Institutes ( IPA , IOSB and IML ) and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence ( DFKI ). Nineteen associated partners , including the Cyber Valley innovation campus and the University of Tübingen , are also involved . n
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