Baked Alaska Networks
Crunchy outside, soft & chewy inside.
The second section of this China Update, starting at 3:29, is report on solar power inverters that mysteriously shut down, taking production capability offline. The origin report is this piece by Reuters.
While less true that it once was, many networks are still built on the “Baked Alaska” model. They have a firewall at the edge that conceals internal structure and does some filtering of traffic. Once you contrive a way to get across that, there are often no internal barriers to pivoting to other systems. Endpoints are hardened to some degree, but least access filtering within a network is an enormous pain in the ass.
So when a piece of equipment is found that contains a cellular access function that is not part of its specification, not even as an option, there’s only one reason for such a thing to exist. It’s a back door for that device and perhaps an intentional pivot point meant to access the rest of the network as well.
Compromised hardware, accidentally, intentionally, strategically - these things are the norm any more. Vendors are careless, complicit, or coerced. Software is even worse, with the sole exception of FOSS, and the the hazards are … different, but still present.
If our supply chain conflict with China spirals back up after this recent “OH SHIT!!” backdown from the Trump administration, it’ll escalate until stuff like this starts breaking. We won’t be able to tell if it’s intentional, or just supply chain stress, at least at first.
My hut has a nice solar setup, but I’m not sure if it’s rigged to keep the house up when the grid goes away. I’m not in a position (yet) to get pushy about that, but I wish I was. If we lose power it would be great to keep AC and HEPA rolling while they figure it out. And I’d need to round up a hot plate - we’ve still got one of those archaic gas stove things here.