Last October, the French tidal energy developer Sabella was a victim of a hacker attack which temporarily rendered the computer managing Sabella’s D10 tidal turbine and accompanying equipment unusable.
Namely, the hackers encrypted the computer managing the satellite connection with Sabella’s equipment installed in Fromveur Passage, off Ushant island, France.
In order to regain control over the equipment, Sabella was asked to pay $4000 to be granted a password to unlock the system.
“We decided to refuse. We changed the computer and reinforced the security,” Jean-Christophe Allo , Project Manager at Sabella, confirmed to Tidal Energy Today.
The incident took place few weeks before connecting the 1 MW tidal turbine with Ushant Island’s electricity grid.
“It took us two weeks to recover completely. The functioning of the turbine was never endangered,” added Allo.
To remind, Sabella installed the D10 tidal turbine in June. It started delivering limited amounts of power to Ushant island on November 5, 2015.
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