Hundreds of electric vehicle drivers on the Isle of Wight, England, were taken by surprise when screens at a local charging station began displaying pornographic content as a result of what appears to be a cyberattack against GeniePoint, the company that manages the affected charging point.
According to a local report, screens at the charging point were supposed to display content from GeniePoint’s official website, although after pranksters made their own, these monitors began displaying adult websites, exposing users to all kinds of sexually explicit content.
The council immediately issued an apology to all users affected by the incident: “The council wishes to apologize to anyone who has found the web content inappropriate and for any inconvenience of the decommissioned charging points.”
Committed charging points are located at Quay Road, Ryde, Cross Street, Cowes and Moa Place. In addition, when trying to access the company’s website, visitors were also redirected to a pornographic site. This incident not only prevented electric car owners from charging their vehicles, but paralyzed the legitimate tasks of websites.
It was also reported that compromised charging points worked intermittently, constantly disconnecting from electric cars: “Charging points may be out of service for a short period of time before restarting remotely, so this could be the problem of it not working. Taking note of the malfunction and the incident, the council decided to replace the charging points with new ones, which could take a couple of months,” the report said.
With the proliferation of electric vehicles and the technology-laden ecosystem they foster, it is critical that government organizations, private companies, cybersecurity firms, and independent researchers take action to mitigate these attacks.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
