cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10061950

Security researchers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) have exposed critical vulnerabilities in Hoymiles solar inverters that allow attackers to remotely control, manipulate, or destroy hundreds of thousands of solar installations across Europe. The Chinese manufacturer holds roughly 20 percent of the European microinverter market, making the security flaw a widespread threat to balcony power plants and small rooftop solar systems.

…

During experimental tests, a modified handheld scanner located two dozen foreign inverters and their identification numbers within 20 minutes. In Augsburg, Hunz identified 42 hackable systems within just one hour. The radio signals can travel several hundred meters, making it feasible to mount attack equipment on drones for systematic scanning of residential areas.

Once attackers have the serial numbers, they can switch inverters on or off, alter power limits, and inject malware through an unprotected firmware update command. Tampering with sensitive network parameters or erasing bootloader memory could lead to fires, electrical accidents, or device destruction requiring physical repair.

…

The CCC informed Hoymiles [which is headquartered in China] about the vulnerability in February but received no initial response. Only after the German Federal Office for Information Security contacted the Chinese authority CNCERT did Hoymiles react at the end of June. The company announced a security update for mid-October.

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Archived

  • EastofEdson@lemmy.caEnglish
    147·
    3 days ago

    Ok, we need to refer to them as something else. I thought we had a much bigger problem on our hands when I first read the title.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      49·
      3 days ago

      I read that same line 3 times before realizing this is not comic book villain bad.

    • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      31·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, I was legit impressed both with the brazen threat of the hackers as well as Europe for somehow becoming a galaxy spanning union.

    • timochka@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      A brigade of yanks with “you just can’t understand how many solar systems fit in Texas, though” is incoming…

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Every civilization ever has been self-centered, so honestly I’m not that torn up about it. Europe is more globally/internationally-focused than most of the world.

          Why do you think it hosts the UN headquarters, ICC headquarters, and so many other IGO headquarters? It’s the only multi-national federation that I know of and is part of the largest and most widespread defense pact in the world.

          Clearly people want to live there, otherwise they’d be migrating to BRICS nations and Northern Africa. So it must be doing something right.

          What’s wrong with a civilization being self-centered? Especially when most of the critique it’s received regarding previous centuries was that it was too expansionist?

          • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            15 hours ago

            Why do you think it hosts the UN headquarters, ICC headquarters, and so many other IGO headquarters?

            Because it retains a lot of soft power from the centuries of being the world power.

            It’s the only multi-national federation that I know of and is part of the largest and most widespread defense pact in the world.

            Depending on where you draw the line on what counts as federation vs other associations of countries, there are many potential others, like Mercosur, Gulf Cooperation Council, Caribbean Community, African Union.

            Clearly people want to live there, otherwise they’d be migrating to BRICS nations and Northern Africa. So it must be doing something right.

            I’d say this is irrelevant to the topic? Also a large part of the reason many people want to move to Europe is because Europe fucked up their home countries starting from the centuries of colonisation, resource extraction, arbitrarily redrawing borders that then fosters ethnic tension for generations, etc.

            What’s wrong with a civilization being self-centered? Especially when most of the critique it’s received regarding previous centuries was that it was too expansionist?

            Well, Europeans tend to feel the world revolves around us (though the USA is even worse in this regard). We feel we can afford not to know about the history and geography of countries outside of Europe, since everything of import happened here. (Though in the post-WW2 era that consideration includes the USA.)

            Also, I don’t think self-centredness and expansionism are opposites. If anything, self-centredness makes it more easy for people to disregard the rights and interests of the “others”, so exploiting them doesn’t feel as wrong as if it happened to other Europeans.