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Hamdare, S 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5562-5400,
2025.
Cyber security for electric vehicle smart charging energy network.
PhD, Nottingham Trent University.
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Abstract
The Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure plays a vital role in advancing sustain able transportation and achieving global net-zero emission targets. The increasing adoption of EVs has led to a rising demand for charging stations, creating both opportunities and challenges. Optimizing Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS) is crucial for scalability, reliability, and user trust while addressing security vulnerabilities. In response to the growing EV market in the UK, JMVL Ltd (industry partner and funder of this research) has initiated research on cybersecurity challenges in EV networks to develop a secure EV charging infrastructure. This research contributes to optimizing and securing the EV Charging Management System (EVCMS), aligning with JMVL’s objectives.
This research addresses the identified challenges through six key contributions, each grounded in real-world validation and industry integration. Unlike most prior studies that offer post-event analytics or focus on power optimization, the 1st contribution is analysing real-time EV charging data, uncovering anomalies in connection durations, charge times, and energy consumption. These insights emphasize the need for operational enhancements and targeted security measures to strengthen the resilience of EV charging infrastructure. Departing from conventional theoretical models or simulation-only approaches, the 2nd contribution is the development of an EVCMS framework as a test bed. This framework integrates an application for booking and reserving charging sessions, enabling optimized charging plans, along with a charge box simulator that utilizes the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) to replicate real-world charging interactions and security scenarios.
In contrast to static or centralized charging systems in literature, the 3rd contribution is scaling the framework into a distributed Hybrid-EVCMS, which dynamically allocates charging stations based on booking loads. This approach enhances scalability, efficiency, and adaptability, ensuring the system can meet real-world demands. While prior work has acknowledged OCPP vulnerabilities, this research uniquely provides a practical security analysis using real-world test bed data. The 4th contribution assessed Hybrid-EVCMS security against Man-in-the-Middle attacks, focusing on vulnerabilities in the OCPP communication protocol. The analysis revealed plaintext transmission of sensitive data viii in OCPP, stressing the need for stronger encryption. Unlike studies that overlook low rate attacks, the 5th contribution tested resilience against Slow Denial-of-Service attacks, identifying abnormal traffic patterns and resource exhaustion risks, emphasizing the need for robust mitigation strategies.
To our knowledge, no existing work has implemented proactive protocol-level defences within OCPP transactions on a live test bed. The 6th contribution is enhancing the OCPP communication protocol with improved security. Key improvements in OCPP included two-step verification for Boot Notifications, enhanced session management for Start Transactions, and integrity checks for Stop Transactions. By addressing both operational inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities, this research provides a comprehensive framework for resilient EV charging system. The key output of this research (EVCMS), has been integrated into JMVL Ltd.’s (Industry partner) product for EV charging.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Hamdare, S. |
| Contributors: | Name Role NTU ID ORCID |
| Date: | May 2025 |
| Rights: | The copyright for this work is retained by the author. You are allowed to reproduce up to 5% of this document for private study or non-commercial research purposes. Any reuse of the content must be appropriately attributed, including the author’s name, title, university, degree level, and specific page references. For other uses or if a larger portion of the document is needed, please reach out to the author for permission. |
| Divisions: | Schools > School of Science and Technology |
| Record created by: | Jeremy Silvester |
| Date Added: | 01 Aug 2025 14:29 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Aug 2025 14:29 |
| URI: | https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54105 |
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