<aside> <img src="/icons/verified_green.svg" alt="/icons/verified_green.svg" width="40px" /> Security is fundamental to all aspects of our product, for users, charging stations, and drivers. In this article we’ll touch on each of these aspects and how you can understand security for your EV Charging network.

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Charger security

Every station that connects to the Switch Platform either uses OCPP 1.6 or OCPP 2.0.1. While OCPP 1.6 has a security extension white paper it does not natively incorporate the high levels of security which are native to OCPP 2.0.1.

In both OCPP 2.0.1 and OCPP 1.6 + Security Extension there are three security levels which are categorised as tiered “Security Profiles”:

• Security Profile 1 uses a username and password to authenticate the charger, communication is not encrypted
• Security Profile 2 uses a username and password to authenticate the charger and a certificate to authenticate the CSMS, communication is encrypted
• Security Profile 3 uses a certificate to authenticate the charger and a certificate to authenticate the CSMS, communication is encrypted. This is the highest security level possible and significantly reduces security risks.

Some chargers and CSMS’s also support Security Profile 0 in which there is no authentication applied at all, Switch does not support this and encourages all operators to upgrade to the highest security profile available.

For OCPP 2.0.1 stations the Switch offers the ability to upgrade security profiles from within the Switch Platform. Meaning you can connect quickly and then upgrade the security of your network remotely, at no cost. To see how to upgrade through security profiles check out the Charger Onboarding guide.

The following certificate should be used for authorising Switch as an OCPP server:

• Switch root certificate

User security

User security is paramount, whether it’s users of the Switch Platform, users of Switch Charge, or users of integrations which are connected to the Switch system.