On October 25, DOE leaders attended the EV Cybersecurity Executive Forum at the White House to ensure that electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure is being built and deployed with cybersecurity and reliability considerations in mind.
Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
October 25, 2022
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On October 25, DOE CESER Acting Deputy Director Fowad Muneer joined DOE Deputy Secretary, David Turk, DOE and DOT Joint Office of Energy and Transportation Executive Director Gabe Klein, and the Acting Director for DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Michael Berube to the EV Cybersecurity Executive Forum at the White House. The event was a strategic opportunity for DOE and CESER to collaborate with interagency and industry partners to ensure that electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure is being built and deployed with cybersecurity and reliability considerations in mind.
The forum, hosted by The Office of the National Cyber Director, briefed EV industry leaders on the current cyber threat and vulnerability landscape and facilitated discussion of current EV cybersecurity practices, gaps, and recommendations. Over the course of the event, attendees discussed security standards, the desired end state for EV security and resilience, and the state of EV cybersecurity research and development (R&D).
Deputy Secretary Turk delivered remarks during Forum and highlighted the Department’s initiatives on EV charging cybersecurity and mitigating risk to the grid and plug-in vehicles, including the projects underway by CESER. He also emphasized the need to invest in our electricity infrastructure, to support a future driven by electric transportation.
CESER is focused on ensuring cybersecurity is an integral part of the nation’s clean energy transition, to include the shift to EVs. The Office is committed to delivering solutions that mitigate cyber risks and advance EV charging infrastructure resilience and performance. CESER’s EV cybersecurity portfolio of work includes several ongoing and upcoming projects and initiatives; several examples are described below. This work is done in close collaboration with the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and VTO.
EV SALaD
The EV Secure Architecture Laboratory Demonstration (SALaD) illustrates the feasibility of implementing security and resilience principles into EV charging infrastructure. The demonstrations apply to state-of-the-art, high-power EV charging infrastructure that is currently used, or will be used by industry. It focuses on detection performance of the National Labs’ prototype safety instrumented systems core, which measures the system’s ability to alert, warn, and detect malicious activity in the power source. CESER is partnering with Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories for this important initiative.
Cybersecurity Framework Development and Technical Assistance
In addition to EV SALaD, CESER is collaborating closely with DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) on EV infrastructure project planning and cybersecurity framework development. CESER also collaborates with the DOE Vehicle Grid Integration Team on electric vehicle-grid integration deployment technical assistance activities with the EV Grid Assist team, a cross-cutting collaboration through the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
In 2023, CESER will partner with The National Institute of Standards and Technology on vulnerability assessment and mitigation solution development on Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) work. This effort is co-funded by CESER and VTO and will help inform a cybersecurity framework profile and advise industry on how to mitigate XFC cybersecurity risks.
Improving Vehicle to Grid Security and Resilience
CESER will also partner with National Labs to mitigate cyber threats associated with bidirectional plug-in EVs. The demonstrations will analyze impact severity on both EVs and the grid, as well as help develop mitigation solutions and strategies including detection, response, and recovery to enable improved vehicle-to-grid (V2G) security and resiliency. EVs serve as critical distributed energy resources where customers and can be utilized in the instance of a power outage or need to offset power when there is excessive load on the grid.
As V2G integration increases, so will customers’ expectations for cybersecure and resilient EV charging equipment. CESER is thinking creatively about what the evolving clean energy grid means for reliability and security, and the Office is focused on integrating cybersecurity by design as the U.S. builds out new critical infrastructure.