HONOLULU (KHON2) — Businesses and residents with solar panels have been warned about being vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The FBI recently put out a warning to renewable industry companies and users through a Private Industry Notification. The PIN cites vulnerabilities in renewable energy technologies in solar panels’ inverters — a device that converts electricity from D.C. to A.C.
Cybersecurity experts said some inverters connect to home internet.
“And when they’re connected to the Internet, anyone can access them and change them and turn them off and mess with them or remotely take them over and then do coordinated attacks against the target,” CYPAC Cybersecurity & IT president Attila Seress said.
Hawaii has a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045 and KHON2 asked Hawaiian Electric about the risk of these inverters.
“We take these types of warnings very seriously and use the information they provide to inform our approach to grid cybersecurity. Like other critical infrastructure providers across the country, we implement rigorous cybersecurity protocols including those mentioned in the release. We also collaborate with industry experts from the public and private sectors, including our partners at the Honolulu FBI field office, to safeguard the technology we deploy into the grid, ensuring reliable and secure energy delivery to our customers.”
Darren Pai, Hawaiian Electric spokesperson
Seress said hackers who take over an inverter could gain access to personal information, but those in the solar industry said critical data should not be at risk with most devices.
“Maybe it’s name and address, but it’s not you know, I can’t even think of one that’s that I’ve ever seen that’s had like Social Security number, usually don’t even have date of birth,” said RevoluSun co-founder & CEO Josh Powell.
Cybersecurity experts said a name and address is all that is needed to start an identity theft scam and residents and businesses alike should consider connecting their inverters to a separate home internet.
“So it could say, for example, you know, ‘Monkey Home,’ and then ‘Monkey Guest,’ and everyone who shows up goes to ‘Monkey Guest,’” Seress said.
View the FBI’s six-page document HERE.