Cybersecurity: Crying Wolf Or Missing The Trojan Horse?

InnovationCybersecurity: Crying Wolf Or Missing The Trojan Horse?ByJoern Hackbarth,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)May 26, 2026, 08:45am EDTJoern Hackbarth, technical executive within the renewable energy sector, responsible for EPC at IPPs of PV and BESS assets in 11 countries. gettyOn December 29, 2025, coordinated cyberattacks struck more than 30 energy-related sites in Poland: wind farms, photovoltaic installations and a combined heat and power plant serving nearly half a million people. Industrial systems were accessed, firmware manipulated and wiper malware deployed, yet no blackout followed.That reflects one of the core challenges of modern cyber risk: Even when the threat is real, it rarely arrives in a way that conclusively settles the debate.​​Poland was not a rumor. Attribution remains debated in public reporting, even as authorities classify it among the most serious attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure in recent years. And so the challenge persists: how to respond to credible signals without overreacting and without dismissing them too easily.Cyber Risk In The Space Between Proof And SuspicionCybersecurity in energy today is not a question of if. Across the industry, organizations are strengthening controls, improving visibility and building resilience, yet the nature of the risk continues to evolve.In late 2024 and into 2025, concerns circulated around the security of widely deployed power electronics, particularly inverters. Not confirmed breaches, but something harder to manage: credible suspicion without definitive proof. Reuters reported that some solar inverters had been remotely disabled. Later, U.S. experts identified undocumented communication components in certain made inverters and batteries—devices that could, in principle, bypass expected controls.Then came the correcti...