Here is the original study: Restrict Remote Access of PV Inverters from High-Risk Vendors
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has issued a stark warning, highlighting a critical threat to Europe’s energy autonomy stemming from the unregulated remote access capabilities of PV inverters produced by non-European, high-risk manufacturers—particularly those from China. A recent study by DNV substantiates these concerns.
As solar power becomes increasingly integral to Europe’s clean energy goals and energy security, a major vulnerability looms: software-enabled remote access to PV inverters—the essential control units of solar power systems.
[…]
The threat is real, not hypothetical. Internet connectivity is essential for modern inverters to perform grid support functions and participate in power markets. However, this connectivity also enables remote software updates, allowing manufacturers to potentially modify device performance from afar. This poses serious cybersecurity risks, including the danger of intentional disruption or large-scale shutdowns. A recent DNV report, commissioned by SolarPower Europe, highlights the credible risk of cascading blackouts due to coordinated or malicious manipulation of inverters.
The only whataboutism is coming from your comment.
to point number 2, China is also a fascist state. your meme is whataboutism because it’s implying we should leave China alone while at the same time China is committing the same abuses that the US does. I’m a FOSS advocate in software and hardware, most Chinese tech doesn’t meet the standards of respecting human rights
It just implies that we should treat the US and Chinese more similarly. Whether this means avoiding the US more or working more closely with China is completely up to interpretation.
Is that a problem with Chinese tech, or just proprietary tech? Because apart from privacy, I can’t tell which human rights tech is supposed to respect, and lack of privacy is an issue not limited to Chinese tech.
not using Uyghur slave labor in East Turkestan would be a bare minimum for example. I’m not implying that China is alone in this, it’s a problem in all the other capitalist countries.
even if they made their tech open source, I highly doubt they’d stop exploiting the populace
So you’re talking about the tech industry, not the tech itself.
Assuming that the “Uyghur forced labor” claim isn’t just American propaganda: Do you really think forced labor is used for the tech industry? Skilled workers, who are needed for the tech industry, are a bit harder to exploit and it seems like the main concern with forced labor of Uyghurs is cotton. To my knowledge, the whole tech industry is located mostly in eastern China.
And how do you know that “most of Chinese tech doesn’t respect human rights”, when referring to forced labor? Do you track down the production chain of Chinese products? Or was there some investigation that I missed? These seem like absurd claims to me, so I’d really like a few sources.
gonna assume you aren’t just a genocide denier and you’re asking for sources in good faith:
https://www.antislavery.org/reports/uyghur-forced-labour-green-technology/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366812496_In_Broad_Daylight_Uyghur_Forced_Labour_and_Global_Solar_Supply_Chains
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara
https://archive.is/renxw
I’m a genocide denier in the sense that I see what may be happening in Xinjiang as a violation of human rights, not a genocide just yet. But your second link seems convincing enough for me to read more about, thanks.
The issues in the Congo are true. I didn’t think about them before because I consider them mostly a failure of the Congo to enforce labor laws, but obviously Chinese companies aren’t innocent here.
FOSS is certainly easier to audit, though there’s still a risk of malicious contributors introducing backdoors or other exploits.
And just to be clear, there are groups within China who are relentlessly executing cyber-attacks against European and US assets. China’s not the only source, but it’s the biggest (at least based on what we’re seeing at my workplace, which includes a high-volume website). And nothing happens in China for long without the CCP’s approval. So, at least de facto, assume that’s in line with Chinese government policy.
The best course of action is to never assume any third party is going to protect your data unless someone credible has independently confirmed it. Don’t buy internet-connected devices unless there’s a damned good reason for them to be connected, and even then, firewall the hell out of them and make sure there’s no path from such a device to your sensitive data. If you have a home LAN for your various connected devices, keep that stuff logically (and ideally physically) separate from your personal data.