SMEs surveyed in America are afraid of the security of Electric Vehicles.
In recent years, the talks about Electric Vehicles (EVs) are getting louder and its transition has been taking over news headlines and are part of government initiatives and milestone plans. In February this year an audit report showed that 6.5 million EVs were sold in 2021 and 50 percent were sold in China alone.
Meanwhile, in a 2022 survey of EV sector professionals, 39 percent of respondents noted security as a top challenge to Internet of Things (IoT)-based EV infrastructure adoption.
As more EV charging stations are constructed and planned across the globe, connected devices opens the energy sector up to increased cyber-attacks.
Now, as businesses have also started to expand and adopt EVs into their service fleets. A survey done by Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB) shows that 15 percent of SMEs in the US have leased or purchased EVs for commercial use.
Small business owners are adding electric vehicles to their service fleets, a survey released recently by HSB reports, but they worry about cyber security when connecting them to public charging stations.
However, 76 percent are still concerned about the security of EVs, fearing that they are susceptible to hacking, ransom-ware and other forms of cyber attacks.
EV Chargers Could Add to Cyber Risks
The plug-in electric chargers communicate with vehicles through an internet connection and security experts warn the systems could be hacked.
These potential threats add to the concerns of small business owners, who were already worried about the cyber security of their commercial vehicles.
The HSB survey found almost half (46 percent) were somewhat or very concerned about the cyber exposures and safety of internet connected and automated vehicles.
Commercial Vehicles Vulnerable to Attacks
When asked about their own experience, 13 percent of the business owners and managers said that at some point, a computer virus, hacking incident, or other cyber-attack had damaged or otherwise affected their commercial vehicles.
Overall, 44 percent of those responding to the poll said they fear that malware, or another cyber-attack will damage or destroy their vehicles’ data, software, or operating systems.
Most of them (56 percent) are somewhat or very concerned their vehicles could be immobilized or made inoperable, their safety compromised (54 percent), and that a hacker could communicate and confront them over their audio system (43 percent).
Survey Methodology
Zogby Analytics surveyed 504 decision makers at small and medium-size U.S. businesses online for HSB about their attitudes and experiences about cyber security and habits. Most businesses were in business and consulting services, retail, infrastructure and construction, and healthcare.
The results were reported in September 2021. Based on a confidence level of 95 percent, the margin for error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey would have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
