Defending the Grid: Cybersecurity in Smart Grid and Charging Station Networks

Chosen theme: Cybersecurity in Smart Grid and Charging Station Networks. Dive into strategies, stories, and practical guidance for protecting grid-edge devices, EV charging infrastructure, and the data that powers modern mobility. Join the conversation, share experiences, and subscribe for field-tested insights.

From Phishing to Power

An innocuous email to a field contractor can become a pivot into a maintenance VPN, then into a substation HMI, and finally into charger management APIs. Map these pathways, verify controls, and rehearse containment before a real incident strikes.

Rogue Chargers and Botnets

Compromised EVSE can coordinate denial-of-service against networks or manipulate load setpoints during peak hours. Treat each charger as an endpoint, not a dumb appliance, with telemetry, rate limits, and verifiable firmware to resist botnet recruitment and command misuse.

Zero Trust for Utilities and Charge Point Operators

Give every charger, SCADA gateway, installer tablet, and maintenance script a strong, revocable identity. Use device certificates anchored in hardware, short-lived tokens for services, and continuous verification to close the door on shared credentials and lingering access.

Zero Trust for Utilities and Charge Point Operators

Separate charging networks, corporate IT, OT control, and guest Wi‑Fi with strict routing and policy enforcement. Microsegment high-risk assets, block east–west traffic by default, and monitor inter-zone flows so compromises cannot silently traverse your environment.

Zero Trust for Utilities and Charge Point Operators

Field apps should request granular permissions for a task, then expire automatically. Temporarily elevate for emergency repairs with dual approval. Capture every decision in tamper-evident logs, and invite technicians to suggest safer workflows in the comments below.

Mutual TLS Everywhere

Terminate OCPP and ISO 15118 with mutual TLS, pin trusted roots, and reject weak ciphers. Validate hostnames, enforce revocation, and avoid downgrade paths. Tell us which libraries and configurations have worked reliably in constrained charger hardware.

Certificates Without Chaos

Automate enrollment, rotation, and revocation with well-scoped PKI. Separate manufacturing, operations, and testing hierarchies. Track lifetimes so expiring certificates do not strand fleets. Subscribe for our upcoming checklist on EVSE certificate lifecycle pitfalls.

Time Sync and Logging Integrity

IEC 61850 events and charging session logs depend on accurate time. Use signed NTP or PTP, hash logs at the edge, and forward to redundant collectors. Integrity preserved today saves investigations tomorrow.

Detect, Respond, Recover: Practical Incident Response

Create concise, hardware-specific runbooks for lost connectivity, suspected tampering, and credential exposure. Include on-call contacts, isolation steps, and safe fallback configurations. Invite your operators to comment with gaps they encounter in the field.

Updates, Firmware, and Hardware Roots of Trust

Anchor boot chains in hardware, verify signatures before execution, and record measurements in TPM or secure elements. Deny unsigned binaries silently. Share your experience adopting these controls on legacy chargers needing careful retrofits.

Updates, Firmware, and Hardware Roots of Trust

Schedule staggered, signed OTA updates with rollback protection and bandwidth-aware distribution. Canary a small cohort first, watch telemetry, then expand. Communicate clearly with site hosts to maintain confidence during necessary maintenance windows.

Data Privacy and Compliance Without Slowing Innovation

Decouple driver identities from session telemetry, tokenize payment references, and restrict re-linking behind audited processes. This preserves analytics value while respecting privacy expectations across jurisdictions and partners in the charging ecosystem.

AI and Anomaly Detection for Real-World Operations

Model normal charging curves by site, time, and vehicle class. Flag deviations like phantom energy draw or unusual handshake retries. Start with interpretable features so operators can validate and tune thresholds confidently.

AI and Anomaly Detection for Real-World Operations

Prefer models that reveal which signals drove an alert, enabling faster triage and fewer false positives. Pair detections with recommended actions and links to relevant playbooks for swift, informed responses.