Researchers have uncovered major cybersecurity risks in residential solar power inverters, exposing vulnerabilities that could disrupt entire national power grids, our colleague Nick Flaherty reports at eeNews Europe. With attackers able to hijack and manipulate solar systems, urgent security measures are needed to protect global energy infrastructure.

"Researchers in the US have uncovered vulnerabilities in the inverters and cloud services used for residential solar power systems," he writes. "These inverters could be compromised and used to launch the equivalent of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack to being down a national electricity grid."

Solar energy is increasingly becoming a crucial part of power grids worldwide, particularly in the US and Europe, as highlighted in a recent IRENA report. However, cybersecurity measures for these systems often lag behind, posing a growing threat to grid security, stability, and reliability.

Forescout Vedere Labs’ SUN:DOWN research examined various solar power system implementations and uncovered 46 vulnerabilities, all of which have since been addressed. While individual residential solar systems generate relatively small amounts of power, their combined output reaches several gigawatts, making their potential impact on cybersecurity and grid resilience impossible to overlook.

"The team analysed six of the top 10 vendors of solar power systems worldwide: Huawei, Sungrow, Ginlong Solis, Growatt, GoodWe, and SMA," Flaherty notes. "They found the 46 new vulnerabilities affecting different components in three vendors: Sungrow, Growatt and SMA."

Refer to Flaherty's article for additional details.
eeNews Europe is an Elektor International Media digital publication.

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