Solar panels under fire. New danger on the horizon
Cyberrataki for photovoltaic installations become a real threat. NATO organizes exercises to prepare for possible scenarios.
The development of renewable energy brings not only benefits, but also new challenges. According to Bloomberg agency, home photovoltaic installations can become the target of cyber attacks that threaten the stability of European energy networks. The scale of risk meant that NATO decided to carry out special maneuvers, preparing for potential incidents of this type.
Hanging panels
According to experts, one hacker and a batch of solar panels are enough to carry out the attack. Vangelis Stykas from the atropos.Ai company, specializing in digital security, demonstrated that it is possible to circumvent solar panel security from the home computer. The accessed access would allow him to control devices on a scale comparable to energy flow throughout Germany.
Stykas, as the so -called “White hat” worked to indicate gaps in the system. However, if his actions were malicious, he could lead to a disturbance of balance between demand and energy supply, resulting in overload and automatically excluding the network.
The distributed nature of solar energy means that millions of small installations create new connection points. They become a gate for cyber criminals. Such an attack could cause extensive failures and lead to power outages in many countries.
NATO exercises
In response to the growing risk of NATO, he organized exercises in Sweden regarding the safety of renewable infrastructure, including solar, wind and water installations. According to Bloomberg, these were the first maneuvers of this type in the world, organized in the context of geopolitical tensions and the growing number of cyber attacks.
The data of the International Energy Agency shows that the number of weekly cybernetic incidents in the energy sector has doubled within two years and currently reaches around 1,100. Experts emphasize that the problem is still underestimated.
Freddy Jonsson Hanberg, responsible for NATO exercises, pointed out that RES systems are characterized by a different type of threats than classic energy sources and are extremely susceptible to attacks.
