Ensure the Grid Interfaces and Payment Gateways Against Data Breach Attacks and Malware: Electric Vehicle Charging Station via Cybersecurity

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS) deployment has been growing exponentially due to the fast integration of Electric Vehicles (EVs). These stations do not just handle the transfer of energy between the power grid and EVs, but also the delicate payment and user authentication procedures. Therefore, EVCS systems are becoming appealing to cyber attackers that want to take advantage of the existing vulnerabilities at grid interfaces and payment points. Privacy integrity and availability of such essential infrastructures are seriously threatened by data-leaking events, malware infection, ransomware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. “we have to have a substantial amount of control over the data, both on an information network and the physical operations themselves.” —these breaches can also result in theft or alteration of financial data, and mismanagement of charging operations, energy theft and potentially destabilization of the grid. This study prescribes a holistic cybersecurity architecture including solutions for both grid communication links, as well as payment processing subsystems at EVCS locations. The method combines multi- factor authentication, anti-malware, malware detection/prevention, and secure communication protocols for an end-to-end secure operation. To avoid unauthorized access or manipulation in the command of energy transfer, encrypted communication with mutual authentication is implemented on grid interfaces. Tokenization, two-factor authentication and process of identification and verification for advanced fraud detection are methods that protect the payment gateways and financial transactions. Malware is combated with constant system monitoring, signature-based scanning and AI-based anomaly detection that can detect zero-day threats by identifying when things are not operating as they should be. Also, the solution includes firmware integrity check to prevent malicious attacks and uses segmentation to separate the payment network from the grid control systems, allowing the two to be isolated from each other – thus reducing the likelihood of cross system compromise. The experimental results are obtained on a simulated EVCS network with real-world charging and payment transactions data for different cyberattack scenarios, such as man-in-the-middle, SQL injection, phishing-based credential theft, and malware injection. Experiments showed a 97.8% detection rate, a 90% of the payment fraud attempts prevented and a very low overhead (<50ms) to normal charging or payment operations. The proposed framework provides a mechanism to make the infrastructure of EVCS a layered defense system that can address operation and finance security issues together. The project increases trust in EV uptake, strengthens regulatory adherence to data protection laws, and erects a resilient shield against advancing cyber threats within an expanding smart mobility environment. This study illustrates that, in addition to safeguarding monetary transactions, active cybersecurity is necessary to ensure the security of the operation of power systems linked to EV charging systems.

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