India Moves to Shield Power Grids From Solar Equipment Malware

India issued guidelines to protect solar power equipment from potential cyberattacks, responding to industry concerns that imported China-made parts may be putting the grid at risk.

Suppliers of inverters — devices that turn direct current into electricity for homes and the grid — will need to connect the machines to a national software platform, hosted on servers in India and managed by a government agency, according to the renewable energy ministry. All communication devices connected to the inverters must use special SIM cards that let machines securely share data without human input, it said in a note on its website.