I work in Solar and it is crazy to me that we are installing thousands of Internet connected devices that control megawatts or now even gigawatts of power. Even if we ignore a Chinese adversarial backdoor, one exploit on these and shit goes dark quick. Regulations should be as tight as on smart meters, but it is just the Wild West right now.
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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These exploits aren't even purely theoretical anymore. At the 38C3 two security researches have demonstrated, that streetlights and many other devices in Europe, specifically in Germany, can be influenced using very simple methods, like replay attacks, through long-wave radio.
Starting at around 35:00, they've also shown, that some solar power plants use similar vulnerable controllers. If it hasn't been fixed yet, it should be pretty easy to remotely connect or disconnect these plants from the grid, thereby potentially destabilizing it.
The security of Europe's infrastructure really is in dire need of regulation.
As someone working in government IT, the entire sector is focused on compliance, not security. You can install the most obviously backdoored/unsafe device or software, as long as you have a paper trail that someone pinky promised that it's secure. Absolutely bonkers.
In your case, if the manufacturer of devices has all the necessary certifications, nobody will even question the security.
I work in Solar and it is crazy to me that we are installing thousands of Internet connected devices that control megawatts or now even gigawatts of power. Even if we ignore a Chinese adversarial backdoor,
There was that attack Russia did on Viasat systems early in the invasion with the aim of knocking out Ukrainian communications infrastructure where they accidentally knocked out the communications links to a bunch of German wind turbines.
That wasn't even Russia trying to hit Germany, just trying to damage systems and not being very precise in what they targeted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viasat_hack
On February 23, 2022, hackers targeted a VPN installation, in a Turin management center, which provided network access to administrators and operators. The hackers gained access to management servers that gave them access to information about company’s modems. After a few hours, the hackers gained access to another server that delivered software updates to the modems which allowed them to deliver the wiper malware AcidRain.[2]
On 24 February, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of Viasat modems went offline.[3] The attack caused the malfunction in the remote control of 5,800 Enercon wind turbines in Germany and disruptions to thousands of organizations across Europe.[4]
Yes!! I have been asking for this since i was 10!! I was not the most normal child...
With regard to forced labour accusations, a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) published a couple of days ago criticizes - again - 'China's system of transferring “surplus” rural workers [...] into industries such as the processing of raw materials for the production of solar panels, batteries and other vehicle parts.'