“Kill switches” have been discovered on Chinese-made solar power inverters in the U.S. (Tech Talk) 5-20-25

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back into the latest in tech and how it affects
you and your world. This is Tech Talk Tuesday on
Wood Radios, West Michigan Live.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome in our good friend Trent Kenebby with us today.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
As always talk about this year as affordable lifestore like
Muster Drive and stand down Grand River Tech as always
just mentioned off the air, by the way, and worth mentioning.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I want to make sure we get it in there.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
The Big AI Summit, so to speak, the brave new
world of super intelligent computers artificial intelligence, happening at the
Ottawa County Patriots Meeting next Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Trent will be there. I'll be there. I've got another front.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'll join us and a few other folks that you'll
know and love as well recognize as we get into
these conversations. Very important for Patriots to understand these subjects,
that's why and folks of faith too, that's why we
cover them so often on this program and with Tech Tuesday.
But we're going to get into all of it at
Howard Miller Community Center that's happening in Zealand next Tuesday,

(01:00):
six to eight thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Trent, I know you're looking forward to this too, jackod.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Morning, justin. Look forward to seeing you there and hopefully
we get a big turnout. A lot of people are
interested in AI and it's a great way to sit
down and talk about it. There'll be a time for
people to ask questions, their own questions, and we'll answer
them live for them.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, that's the thing. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
You hear this show and you may think, just what
does that mean? Well, you'll be able to ask each
of us, and particularly Trent and some of the other
folks up close and personal as we get into it.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Speaking of getting into it, this is probably to me.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
The latest, the biggest story of the week when it
comes to this tech issue of some of the infrastructure
that we've gotten from China.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
China, you know, we got it.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's in everything, it's everywhere, and now we're finding out
it's in the solar panels China sold to the West
from China. Instant kill switches is what they call them. Trent,
What are they and why should we be concerned?

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah, justin. This part of the story is new, and
part of the story is very old for probably fifteen
plus years already. Devices that we get from China, security cameras,
you know, phones in your office, an IP based phone,
a network phone in your in your business, these home
little cameras that people get online, all these different devices,

(02:21):
you know, vacuums. I mean, it's endless. The devices come
out of China. Many of them have this the software
and the ability to phone home. What that means is
they have the ability to reach out to Chinese servers
to do various things. And they might be advertised just
to synchronize a time clock with some server in China.
We all know that more nefarious things happen. So that

(02:43):
is an old story and that's something that a business
should protect their network with a firewall. If they don't,
they are already have been, you know, vulnerable and yeah
for many years. The new part of this story is
that there's device is that they're selling specifically inverters that
run the solar grid. They have a separate communication module

(03:08):
like a cellar chip in there. So a traditional firewall
with this device is plugged into the network wouldn't necessarily
stop that threat. So they have a separate cellar chip
that could be used with the cellar grid to do something,
whether that's turned the device off or all to the
power levels, burn some equipment up. That is the new
part of this story, and that is very scary because

(03:30):
if this is a hidden chip that's really tiny, really
hard to even detect physically, and some equipment, and it
can't be easily blocked through the primary network how it's
connected to the network, that is a really scary vulnerability.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Is it possible, Trent, that they've got these chips or
things like that in more than just these solar panels,
like for instance, other technology that we have.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Justin absolutely it's possible. Right, So if they want to
do something nefarious and if they're not bound by any
ethics or rules, these chips are so tiny that they
can put them in an existing circuit board. They have
all the power that the circuit board, they have all
the infrastructure they need to do that. So, yes, this
certainly can be done. Where this has been exploited. I

(04:16):
don't know it can be physically detected. It's not like
it's microscopic and can't be found. But who's busting apart
the electronics and dissecting the circuit board to figure out
if this stuff is in there? So certainly if we
did that to all of our devices, I think we
would find a scarily high percentage of them that have
these things built in.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
All right, that's probably the biggest story. We just talked
about it moments ago. But another big one, trouser Trump
up on the hill talk about the one big beautiful
bell today. But he was there in the Rose Garden
yesterday with Melania signing that bill to take a down bill.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
No, we had that problem.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
She got a look.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
But I want to thank you, honey. You've done amazing
that this was done when you started and I said,
it sounds like a tough one and yet a very
important one, and you've got it done. So I congratulate you,
and I congratulate Ted, Murria, everybody. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We'll sign the bill. Thank you.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Now.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
This is another one of the stories, and this is
a very sad one because theres real life consequences and
we've seen teenagers, particularly here in Michigan, that have been
blackmail etc.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
And taking their own lives because of this.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, justin this is something that's very sad that we
don't hear too much about, but it does happen in
our own community, where people take their own lives, People
will leave a spouse, people will lose their job. I mean,
the implications aren't just a suicide. There's many other implications
that this causes because of inappropriate content supposedly going to

(05:46):
be leaked online in the classic you know, pay us
a lot of money, or we're going to post this
nasty content online about you, and a lot of times
that's false content that's AI generated. This bill will provide
foretion for that, and it's gonna be difficult for the
people to stop this, that people that own the basic

(06:06):
of the Internet, because the Internet is fairly open. But
it is the start. It does provide a court based
legal system and process to remove bad content and punish
those who do that Stateside. I don't know how they're
gonna police us internationally, where a lot of this kind
of stuff comes from. But it is a very good

(06:27):
start and this is long overdue.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Here it is Trent. Can there be Affordable Life store
Lake Michigan Drive in Standdow and by the way, you
can find out more about your device there, or if
you've got questions about your organization, your school, whatever it
might be, Grand Rivertech, Grand Rivertech dot com. He'll be
able to take care of you and get you set
up so that you're secure onother Chinese junk that's causing

(06:53):
so many issues. And don't forget next Tuesday, that meeting
on Artificial Intelligence to Brave new worlds super intelligent Computers
Howard Miller Community Center in Zealand six to eight thirty Trent,
myself and others that you'll recognize and want to be
a part of. There, but the details make sure they're
up online in the show notes. Justin Barclay dot com

(07:14):
Today in the Stack, Thank you, my friend. Always a pleasure.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Thanks Justin, have a great day.