Awareness

Denmark’s Energy Equipment Scare and the Growing Crisis in Supply Chain Security

by Lazarus Alliance 0 Comment
A hard drive with an investigator's spyglass in front of it.

In May 2025, Danish officials were alerted to a chilling discovery: unexplained electronic components embedded in imported circuit boards destined for the country’s energy infrastructure. The equipment, reportedly intended for solar power or broader energy supply applications, raised immediate concerns from Green Power Denmark, a national industry group. While the intentions behind the components remain unclear, the implications are stark. 

Whether due to oversight, negligence, or malicious design, such incidents illuminate the urgent need to address a long-overlooked vulnerability: physical hardware security in the global supply chain.

This article discusses the coming threat to hardware supply chains, what major security frameworks say about it, and what you can do to protect yourself.

 

Denmark’s Discovery and Increasing Supply Chain Threats

Jørgen Christensen, Technical Director at Green Power Denmark, explained that the components were discovered during routine inspections of printed circuit boards intended for use in energy equipment. While there is no confirmed evidence of malicious intent, Christensen noted that the extra components “should not be there”, a statement that should ring loud and clear across all critical infrastructure sectors.

This incident follows closely on the heels of revelations in the U.S., where officials discovered unauthorized communication modules in Chinese-manufactured solar inverters (devices capable of bypassing firewalls and potentially destabilizing power grids). The convergence of these findings suggests that supply chains are being exploited not only for software-based cyberattacks but also for covert, hardware-level manipulations.

 

Why Physical Hardware Security Matters Now

Cybersecurity has long focused on addressing software vulnerabilities, including malware, ransomware, phishing, and patch management. Yet, physical hardware supply chains represent an equally critical threat vector. Unlike software, where updates and real-time monitoring are possible, hardware components are far more complex to detect.

The globalization of manufacturing processes has dispersed the hardware supply chain across dozens of countries, involving subcontractors and numerous vendors. Circuit boards are fabricated in one country, assembled in another, and shipped to yet another for integration. This complexity makes it nearly impossible to fully verify the security pedigree of each component without a rigorous and consistent hardware assurance program.

Moreover, many of these components are sourced from unverified or unaudited suppliers, particularly in rapidly growing sectors such as solar energy, where cost competition pressures vendors to source the most affordable components available.

This fact is a major problem in areas like power grids, healthcare devices, telecommunications, and defense systems. Embedded backdoors or passive components capable of transmitting or receiving unauthorized signals can evade detection for years, only to be activated in times of conflict or geopolitical tension. These components can serve as the backbone for espionage, botnets, or even long-ranging advanced persistent threats.

 

Regulatory Frameworks and Physical Security

A hard drive with an investigator's spyglass in front of it.

Several existing security and compliance frameworks require consideration of supply chain risks, including those related to physical hardware. 

Some of these include

  • NIST SP 800-161: Focuses on supply chain risk management (SCRM) for federal systems and recommends assessing both logical and physical component integrity.
  • ISO/IEC 27036-3: Provides guidelines on information security for supplier relationships, including requirements for tamper resistance and secure hardware design.
  • Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification: Required for contractors with the U.S. Department of Defense, CMMC addresses supply chain security across its levels, including physical component vetting.
  • FedRAMP and GovRAMP: These cloud compliance frameworks extend requirements for infrastructure control, which includes assurance of underlying hardware security in cloud-hosting environments.
  • GDPR: While not directly targeting hardware, these laws require data controllers to ensure the security of systems storing and processing personal data, including those vulnerable to hardware-based breaches.

 

Mitigation Strategies for Decision-Makers

To secure their supply chains, especially when deploying critical infrastructure, organizations should implement a multi-tiered mitigation strategies that blend attention to internal hardware configurations and their supply chain. The latter cannot be over-emphasized: most of our technology is (quite literally) connected to a supply chain of cloud software and global hardware markets. 

Some strategies you might consider to understand hardware threats and compliance obligations include: 

  • Component Verification and Traceability: Organizations must demand full Bills of Materials from suppliers and establish component traceability. This includes cryptographic verification of firmware and physical inspection of printed circuit boards.
  • Third-Party Audits and Certifications: It’s vital to work only with vendors that undergo independent security audits. Certification schemes such as Common Criteria or FIPS 140-2 can add a layer of assurance regarding hardware security.
  • Secure Configuration Management: Implementing robust SCM protocols ensures that hardware and its configurations meet strict security baselines and remain free from unauthorized modifications throughout their lifecycle.
  • Zero Trust Supply Chain Architecture: Applying zero-trust principles to supply chains means verifying every component and actor, never assuming trust based solely on past performance or reputation.
  • Automated Supply Chain Risk Management Tools: Platforms like Continuum GRC can automate the mapping of supply chain controls to multiple frameworks, making it easier to enforce hardware-related security practices across global operations.
  • Incident Response Preparedness: Organizations must have predefined protocols to isolate, inspect, and replace hardware components upon discovery of anomalies, just as they would when responding to a software-based breach.

 

Are Your Hardware Security Measures Up to Snuff?

With threats now arriving pre-installed in circuit boards and transformers, the future of cybersecurity depends not just on firewalls and encryption, but on microscope inspections, material provenance, and trust redefined through verification.

To learn more about how Lazarus Alliance can help, contact us. 

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