Pierluigi Paganini
May 18, 2025
Investigators found “kill switches” in Chinese-made power inverters in US solar farm equipment. These hidden cellular radios could let Beijing remotely cripple power grids during a conflict.
The Times reported that experts found rogue devices, including hidden cellular radios, in Chinese-made power inverters used worldwide, including the UK. These devices could be remotely activated to shut off inverters, potentially causing widespread power disruptions. The discovery raises fears China may have installed covert malware in critical energy infrastructure across the US and Europe, enabling remote attacks during conflicts.
“While inverters are built to allow remote access for updates and maintenance, the utility companies that use them typically install firewalls to prevent direct communication back to China.” reported Reuters. “However, rogue communication devices not listed in product documents have been found in some Chinese solar power inverters by U.S experts who strip down equipment hooked up to grids to check for security issues, the two people said.”
In the past nine months, experts found undocumented communication devices like cellular radios in batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers, though the exact number of affected inverters and batteries is unknown.
“That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid,” an anonymous informer told Reuters
The rogue devices’ existence is newly revealed, with no public US government acknowledgment. The DOE said it assesses risks but faces challenges due to manufacturers’ poor disclosure.
This is the first time that the presence of rogue devices’ in Chinese equipment was revealed, with no public US government acknowledgment. The DOE said it assesses risks, but faces challenges due to manufacturers’ poor disclosure.
The DOE said it’s working with the federal government to strengthen U.S. supply chains and integrate trusted equipment into the power grid as domestic manufacturing grows.
The US grid was successfully hacked in November by hackers belonging to foreign governments. Despite the attribution of the attacks is very difficult, security experts believe that Russia, Iran and China were behind the successful breach.
“The threat we face from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is real and growing. Whether it’s telecom hacks or remotely accessing solar and battery inverters, the CCP stops at nothing to target our sensitive infrastructure and components,” said U.S. Representative August Pfluger, a Republican member of the Committee on Homeland Security. “It is about time we ramp up our efforts to show China that compromising us will no longer be acceptable,” he told Reuters.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, power inverters)
