Poland’s grid attack targeted solar farms
Attackers went after wind turbines, solar farms and heat plants across Poland in December. Small energy sites are now targets.
Poland’s government confirmed this month that a coordinated attack hit its energy system in late December. The targets weren’t big power stations. They were distributed sites: solar farms, wind turbines, combined heat and power plants, and the systems that connect them to grid operators. The government says there was no blackout.
Researchers at Dragos and ESET link it to Russian state groups. Poland’s energy minister said it was the first time they saw attacks on individual generating sources.
Small energy sites are often managed remotely by a vendor, with a router, a remote access tool and a default password. The same pattern exists in water pumps, building management and factory lines.
- Know every remote connection into your operational systems, and who uses it.
- Require MFA for vendor access, and turn it on only when needed.
- Keep control networks away from the internet and from office IT.
- Plan how to run manually if the remote link goes down.