Informational seminar: From Charger to Grid: Unveiling and Countering Cyber Threats in EV-Smart Grid Ecosystems
By: Bassam Moussa
Day: Thursday, December 18, 2025
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Informational seminar:
The explosive growth of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has transformed the charging infrastructure—from individual Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) to centralized management platforms—into a vast and vulnerable attack surface, deeply intertwined with the modern Smart Grids. This seminar begins by offering a critical overview of this ecosystem's vulnerabilities and its pivotal integration with grid infrastructure.
We will examine how threats originating in the EV domain can swiftly propagate to destabilize the broader power grid, underscoring the critical interdependencies between EV proliferation and national energy resilience. Central to the discussion are coordinated cyber-attacks, specifically switching attacks that manipulate charging/discharging cycles, capable of triggering dangerous voltage fluctuations, overloads, and widespread disruptions in distribution systems.
Shifting decisively from analysis to action, the seminar outlines necessary proactive preventive measures and introduces a robust two-stage protection framework essential for the real-time detection and mitigation of these advanced threats. We will conclude by exploring forward-looking technologies, including Blockchain for secure decentralized coordination and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for adaptive threat intelligence, to fortify EV-Smart Grid architectures against evolving cyber risks.
Bio:
Dr. Bassam Moussa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST), Qatar, where he specializes in cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and cyber-physical systems (CPS).
His research centers on developing innovative protection frameworks for critical infrastructure, with a special focus on Smart Grid security. His work emphasizes integrating advanced technologies to bolster system resilience against sophisticated cyber threats.
Before joining UDST, Dr. Moussa held key research positions in Montreal, Canada:
- Cybersecurity Researcher at the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (2022–2024) and Hitachi Energy Research(2020–2022).
- Postdoctoral Fellow at Thales Research & Technology's cortAIx lab, supported by the prestigious FRQNT Postdoctoral Award.
He holds a Ph.D. in Information and Systems Engineering from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada, 2018).
By: Bassam Moussa
Day: Thursday, December 18, 2025
===================================================================
Informational seminar:
The explosive growth of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has transformed the charging infrastructure—from individual Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) to centralized management platforms—into a vast and vulnerable attack surface, deeply intertwined with the modern Smart Grids. This seminar begins by offering a critical overview of this ecosystem's vulnerabilities and its pivotal integration with grid infrastructure.
We will examine how threats originating in the EV domain can swiftly propagate to destabilize the broader power grid, underscoring the critical interdependencies between EV proliferation and national energy resilience. Central to the discussion are coordinated cyber-attacks, specifically switching attacks that manipulate charging/discharging cycles, capable of triggering dangerous voltage fluctuations, overloads, and widespread disruptions in distribution systems.
Shifting decisively from analysis to action, the seminar outlines necessary proactive preventive measures and introduces a robust two-stage protection framework essential for the real-time detection and mitigation of these advanced threats. We will conclude by exploring forward-looking technologies, including Blockchain for secure decentralized coordination and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for adaptive threat intelligence, to fortify EV-Smart Grid architectures against evolving cyber risks.
Bio:
Dr. Bassam Moussa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST), Qatar, where he specializes in cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and cyber-physical systems (CPS).
His research centers on developing innovative protection frameworks for critical infrastructure, with a special focus on Smart Grid security. His work emphasizes integrating advanced technologies to bolster system resilience against sophisticated cyber threats.
Before joining UDST, Dr. Moussa held key research positions in Montreal, Canada:
- Cybersecurity Researcher at the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (2022–2024) and Hitachi Energy Research(2020–2022).
- Postdoctoral Fellow at Thales Research & Technology's cortAIx lab, supported by the prestigious FRQNT Postdoctoral Award.
He holds a Ph.D. in Information and Systems Engineering from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada, 2018).