Attack on Satellite Firm Viasat Interrupted Wind Power Generation Systems

The first news about the attack on the KA-SAT communication satellite high volume network was posted on February 28. Later it was revealed that the attack occurred on February 24 and targeted Viasat systems, Viasat being one of the largest commercial satellite operators. The company statement revealed that the attack caused a partial outage in their system which affected internet access in Ukraine and other European countries served by the KA-SAT network. The attack had an unexpected side effect – the downtime in the KA-SAT systems resulted in Enecron, a German wind power company, losing remote access to the controls of 5,800 wind turbines producing 11 GW of power.

In the event of a communication breakdown, solar and wind power plants automatically switch to a kind of "autopilot."

Estimated Cost

Remote access lost, no damage reported

Threat Source

Impacts

IT