181/68 Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Cybersecurity experts have uncovered a serious threat to global energy infrastructure after discovering undocumented components—so-called “kill switches”—embedded in electrical inverters manufactured in China. These include hidden cellular modems, raising concerns that China could remotely disable power grid systems, especially during times of conflict. Such an attack could cause widespread blackouts and severely impact national security.
Investigations by U.S. experts, including internal hardware inspections of equipment connected to power transmission systems, have confirmed the presence of undocumented communication components. These were found in inverters and batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers. Sources told Reuters that “this is effectively a grid-destruction mechanism, installed and ready.” While remote access is commonly included for maintenance and updates, utility companies usually install firewalls to block communication back to the manufacturers. However, the covert devices appear specifically designed to bypass such protections.
Although the discovery of these hidden components has only recently been made public, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) acknowledged that it is currently assessing the risk and admitted that incomplete disclosure from manufacturers is a contributing factor. The DOE is now working with federal agencies to strengthen the national supply chain and encourage the use of trusted equipment within critical infrastructure.
This revelation comes amid heightened scrutiny following a successful cyberattack on U.S. power systems in November 2024, which security experts have linked to Russia, Iran, and China. The U.S. Homeland Security Committee stressed that “the threat we face from the Chinese Communist Party is real and expanding—whether it’s telecom hacking or remote access to solar inverters and batteries,” and called for a serious escalation in countermeasures against Chinese influence in national infrastructure systems.
