Insight: Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters

[highplainsdem]

Source: Reuters

U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said.

Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.

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.

-snip-

The rogue components provide additional, undocumented communication channels that could allow firewalls to be circumvented remotely, with potentially catastrophic consequences, the two people said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/ghost-machine-rogue-communication-devices-found-chinese-inverters-2025-05-14/

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One of their sources described this as "a built-in way to physically destroy the grid."

[erronis]

1. Expect that there are rogue circuits in many electronics coming from China (and elsewhere)

It has become very simple to package miniature circuits into connectors (think USB) or integrated components added to motherboards of all types of equipment.

Depending on their purposes, these rogue components can be extremely simple, such as waiting for a particular pattern to appear on their lines and then disrupt other traffic. Or they can be used to inject malware into hardware/software (see BadUSB: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BadUSB). Others can be collecting and analyzing data and sending reports back to control centers when queried.)

The US has developed some of these capabilities so it is not just the nefarious "others" that are engaging in these tactics.

[3auld6phart]

4. I am not

A ‘putor nerd, but I suspected this since forever. I bet every damn ( IPhone has a some kind of chip listening I). Tracking chip, whatever

[slightlv]

6. I started paying real attention to things like this

when the brouhaha around Innova computers came out. Have always thought it'd be way too easy to set up malware or some sort of spyware inside routers, PC's, etc., that aren't made in this country (and even those that are, given how much our government likes to spy on us). But other than being choosey and hoping for the best, what are you gonna do? Go electronic-less? In this day and age?!

[LiberalArkie]

2. A lot of this started many years ago when foreign countries would order out Cisco switches and routers

The NSA / CIA would intercept them and install back doors into them. Microsoft did the same with its products. Probably many companies did also.

[Figarosmom]

3. Sure would be a way to sabotage

Our grid or blow up batteries starting fires or lots of other destruction.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. File under "DUHHHH."