Pagers and walkie-talkies can be turned into bombs by remote control. So why not electric cars?
That was my first thought when I read about last month's coordinated attack on Hezbollah, which is believed to have been orchestrated by Israel. The attack caused pagers and walkie-talkies to explode across Lebanon, killing dozens and injuring thousands.
Thermal runaway events can be intentionally triggered even when the EV's “ignition” is off, especially if a hacker gains access to the vehicle's battery management system.
Although these devices appear to have been modified at some point in the supply chain, the principles that turn them into deadly weapons are relatively simple. The idea is to heat the battery until it catches fire or explodes.
This can easily be applied not only to EVs, but also to hybrid, plug-in, or 48V vehicles that use much larger batteries than handheld devices.
Of course, these vehicles are equipped with a number of safety systems to prevent the battery from catching fire or overheating. However, these safety systems run on software that can be hacked, especially since they are already many years old by the time the vehicles are manufactured and sold.
Roy Fridman, CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of C2A Security, an Israel-based cybersecurity company focused on the automotive industry. said recently One car manufacturer told him that the software that controls the motors had 2 million lines of code. And it's just a motor.
He said: “There are hundreds of millions of lines of code in a vehicle. When it comes to self-driving cars, that's even more important. But the number of lines of code in a vehicle continues to grow.”
This code is vulnerable to exploitation thanks to its wireless connection to the Internet (for software updates) and charging infrastructure. Vehicle-to-Grid technology, which allows EV owners to sell their energy storage capacity to grid operators, requires a connection to the grid.
“The more communication protocols you use, the more lines of code you have and the more you are susceptible to influence. [hacking]'' Fridman said.
We already know that technology exists to remotely disable cars. Cybersecurity experts also worry that EVs could be hacked and drivers' personal information stolen.
As Fridman says, it's possible that someone inside the car could “overload the battery and defeat some of the protection mechanisms.”
Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire if they undergo an uncontrollable self-heating phenomenon called thermal runaway. Most often this is caused by a damaged or defective battery. However, such an event can be intentionally triggered even when the EV's “ignition” is off, especially if a hacker gains access to the vehicle's battery management system.
If the battery overheats, it releases toxic and flammable gases that can cause an explosion. At the very least, it creates a smoldering, hard-to-extinguish fire.
To learn more about this, check out my video below.
