Cybersecurity
Hacking Rooftop Solar Is a Way to Break Europe’s Power Grid
The rush to install millions of smart panels is creating vulnerabilities inside electricity networks.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that 100 million households worldwide will rely on rooftop solar panels for energy by 2030.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
All it takes is one hacker and a batch of faulty solar panels to threaten the safety of Europe’s electric grid.
Vangelis Stykas, a cybersecurity consultant, said he figured out how to do it. Using a laptop and smartphone at his home in Thessaloniki, Greece, Stykas bypassed firewalls in panels around the world and gained access to more power than runs through Germany’s entire system.