U.S. labs find undocumented cellular radios in Chinese inverters and battery packs

[PandaBear]

That was a perfectly crafted virus...by global national entities...made the operators think that everything was AOK, while they oversped the equipment...amazing, and no remote control.

I remember that, it was a work of art, having 4 zero day backdoor they deployed and sent by some USB drive left around the facility to be picked up by small minded employee (or someone being bribed by us).

Probably reusing the same board across different platforms. Cellular would be the silliest method of spying if you have no direct physical access to the device.

I was thinking the same thing. Having it work requires some sort of massive subscription plan or have to go on the E911 network, plus the most important thing is a large enough antenna that makes it useful. It would be much easier to use wifi and go on some Chinese routers nearby instead. I wonder if they really want to spend the additional $20 or so per device to make them cellular complete or just have the digital part of the cellular chip left unused on it. This article didn't say what mechanism was found and how complete it is, I am now really curious on what it has inside.

I have a hard enough time trying to setup a bitcoin miner at work with a left over computer and sent it through a cell phone hotspot, I couldn't imagine them not getting caught if all of a sudden they want to go through T-Mobile with 10k devices without getting attention from Palentir.

I've been seeing this news here and there recently.
While not surprising it is frightening.
If the US wants to get tough with China, this would be a valid hill to defend.

Everyone in the world is doing it to everyone else in the world already. Remember this? If we don't assume the cat is out of the bag we are not doing our job right.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...european-officials-through-danish-2021-05-30/

 

[Shannow]

Are you saying that Suxnet was pre-loaded before delivery?
I know that at least VAX mainframes (likely IBM 360/370 too) sold to 'unfriendlies' had hardware allowing for remote access. Nothing new really, backdoors in hardware and software and built-in trojans go back decades ago.

No, wasn't preloaded...they relied on human nature to put USB drives in slots, either with intent, or accidentally.

 

[Astro14]

Are you saying that Suxnet was pre-loaded before delivery?
I know that at least VAX mainframes (likely IBM 360/370 too) sold to 'unfriendlies' had hardware allowing for remote access. Nothing new really, backdoors in hardware and software and built-in trojans go back decades ago.

It was absolutely nothing like that.

Please go read up on it.

It was targeted, elegant, and supremely effective.

 

[dubber09]

If you mean damaging centrifuges then I disagree, imho it can be seeing as act of war since it was a state launched action targeting another state's nuclear facility causing very expensive damage. Just reverse the sides and think how you'd see it if sending side was now of receiving end.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

A rather eye-opening thread on twitter:


Cliff notes:
US Security Teams have torn down several different Chinese-sourced solar inverters and discovered cellular radios inside that allow the device to be remotely deactivated. This is not without precedent, as apparently, as noted in the thread:
View attachment 283993

On the 15th of November, 2024, inverters were remotely deactivated due to a contract dispute.

Given the absolutely MASSIVE install base of Chinese inverters across the world, the amount of leverage being able to remotely deactivate these devices provides is staggering.

Good post. I would bet you were not the least bit surprised when you found this info.