Intelligence firm ‘Recorded Future Inc.’ in a report released on Wednesday, said that China has targeted India’s power sector as part of a cyber espionage campaign. Quoting the ‘Recorded Future’ report, published in Bloomberg, it has been told that at least 7 load dispatch centers in North India were the target of hackers sponsored by the Chinese government. The work of these load dispatch centers is to carry out real-time operations for grid control and power delivery throughout Ladakh and areas near the China border here.
One of these load dispatch centers has already been attacked by the hacking group RedEcho. According to the report of Recorded Future, these hackers belong to a large hacking group. At the same time, America also believes that the hacking group is directly related to the Chinese government. The report also claimed that the hackers had also targeted a National Emergency Response System in India, a unit of the Multinational Logistics Company. This hacking group TAG-38 used malware software named ShadowPad.
According to the report, this software has been previously been used by the People’s Liberation Army and the Defense Ministry of China. Recorded Future’s report says that information around critical infrastructure may have been collected by targeting dispatch centers or where plans are being made in the future. Jonathan Kondra, senior manager of Recorded Future, said the methods used by hackers to infiltrate were unusual. The devices used by the hackers were operating from South Korea and Taiwan.
For your information, let us tell you that Recorded Future Inc. has revealed the involvement of Chinese hackers behind the 12-hour blackout in Mumbai on October 12, 2020. On the same day, 40 sub-stations in Telangana were also targeted by these hackers. However, this attempt was foiled after receiving an alert from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN). China-sponsored hackers have been targeting the electricity supply in India till now. Through cyberattacks, China’s motive seems to be disrupting India’s internal system.
